Life's Temporary
by Pols
Summary: Shadow becomes trapped in a world where Eggman rules all. What'll he do? plz RR contains sadness and violence COMPLETE!
1. Introduction and relaxing on the beach

**Yay! I'm back! Here's my new story, Life's Temporary. This first chapter is also an insight into the time setting of the story and what the gang have been up to. It's set 10 years after the ARK u see!  
The outline is that SHadow now leads a great life but then, after 10 years in hiding, Eggman emerges and blasts Shadow into a world where he is unknown and Eggman rules all. He must journey through this horrible world and find a way out.**

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**Chapter 1**

It had now been just about 10 years after he was last seen, The ARK incident. Sonic and the gang were all grown up and had gone through many twists and turns.

Sonic was now 25. He wasn't as immature as he had been 10 years ago but he was still active. His love or speed and relatively care free lifestyle was still intact. He'd still often be seen going for runs around Station Square and would often leave the city, toward the desert.

Tails has just had his 20th birthday. He lived in Mystic Ruin and would spend hours upon hours designing and building various inventions. He and Sonic (along with his other friends) managed to keep contact via video phone, so he would also chat to Sonic or Amy about his latest builds.

Knuckles had gone back to Angel Island to guard his precious Master Emerald, as his ancestors had done before him. At 26 he was still going strong.

Shadow had discovered his true love for Amy and they were now expecting a baby together, but they weren't planning on getting married. They resided in Station Square, in a nice big apartment 2nd to top floor and facing the beach. With the baby due within a matter of weeks, Shadow couldn't be happier. However he hadn't changed much over the past 10 years. He still liked to be on his own from time to time and reflect on his memories; Maria, the ARK….

He knew that they may not be real memories but had decided a long time ago to just enjoy what he had of them, regardless of whether or not they were true.

We now come into their apartment.

Shadow was sitting on the balcony, staring at the vast blue ocean. The sun twinkled off of it and he could hear the sound of laughter coming from the sand. He took in a deep breath through his nose and closed his eyes as he took in the tranquillity.

"Such a great day" he said to himself.  
"What was that, Shadow?" a voice came from behind him.

Shadow blinked and turned around. Amy walked in from the kitchen, wiping her hands as she'd just done the washing up. Shadow jumped down from the balcony as Amy walked to him.

"I was just saying," Shadow said, "It's a nice day today."

He placed his hand on Amy's belly and kissed it.

"That it is." Amy agreed looking at the bright blue sky. She looked down at Shadow, over her pregnant belly. She smiled.

"I can't believe it Shadow." She said excitedly. "Just a few weeks to go now!"  
"Yes and it'll be great. I'm going to make sure you're both protected and I shall love you both for eternity." Shadow replied.

He stood upright and smiled at her. She blushed a little.

"I know Shadow. Ditto." Amy said.

They kissed on the lips.

When they pulled apart, Shadow put his arm around his beloved Amy and they looked at the sky together.

"We should go down there too." Amy said listening to the laughter coming from the beach.  
"Good idea. Better to be outside than cooped up indoors." Shadow replied.

He kissed Amy's head and walked back indoors. She turned as he did so, watching him. Shadow zipped around the apartment and within a few seconds a collection of beach accessories were laid out by the door.

"I have the stuff ready." He said grinning. Amy chuckled.

"OK I'll go get my sandals then be right with you!" she said.  
----

Meanwhile, down on the beach Sonic the Hedgehog, world renowned hero and fastest thing alive, was relaxing on a deck chair. He wore cool black shades which glistened in the sunlight. By his side was a small table which held aloft a big half eaten ice cream sundae and a large drink topped full with ice.

The hedgehog sighed with relaxation.

"Oooooooh yeah! This is the life. No worries, no responsibilities. Just utter bliss at the beach!" he said aloud.

Just then a few kids noticed him and asked for his autograph, which he was more than happy to do. After they'd gone he picked up his drink and took a big slurp. He placed it back on the table and stretched out his arms. He put one hand behind his head and lay the other down at his side.

The calm sounds of the sea and the softness of the wind were almost hypnotic and it didn't take long for Sonic to fall asleep.

After what didn't seem long to Sonic, he heard a familiar voice.

"Well well well. Look what we have here!" the voice said.

Sonic fluttered his eyelids open. As his vision went back into focus he saw Shadow and Amy looking down at him.

"Hey there, faker." Shadow said.

Sonic sat up quickly.

"Hey guys! It's good to see you!" he said happily and stood up, taking off his shades.  
"Wow Amy! Look how big you've gotten!" he said holding his arms out for a hug.

"Thanks! Only a few weeks left!" she said and gave Sonic a big warm hug.

Sonic chuckled and finished his hug. He held out his hand to Shadow.

"Congrats dude," he said. Shadow took it and shook it.  
"Thanks" he said.

The three hung out at the beach for the rest of the day. They had a great time recollecting memories and relaxing in the sun. The sun soon began to set and people began to leave for their homes.  
Sonic helped Shadow and Amy pack their stuff and began walking with them up toward the short promenade.

"It's been great seeing you Sonic" Amy said.  
"You too, Amy. It's been too long!"  
"I wonder how everyone else is." Shadow said.

"Hey we should get them all to come down here next week! It'll be great to see them too." Sonic suggested.  
"That's a great idea!" Amy said.  
"Yes, blue hedgehog. Your simple mind has pulled through, this time!" Shadow said chuckling.

"Har har de har har!" Sonic replied sarcastically. "What do say….Wednesday? It'll give me 4 days to buy some cool new shades!"

"Ok then! It's settled! We can write out invites!" Amy said clapping her hands happily. Shadow nodded.

"All right then," he said, "I guess we'll see you next Wednesday."  
"Awesome" Said Sonic.

He waved goodbye to Shadow and Amy and rushed off toward the centre of the city.


	2. Organisation

**Yay! thanks for the reviews! Only into the 2nd chapter and already someone wants copyrights! lol hmm i dunno about tht coz I've only just started writing it! lol  
Anyways keep up the reviews and enjoy this chapter!  
**

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Chapter 2**

Meanwhile, the notorious Dr. Eggman was hidden in his secret underground base and had been working there for the past 10 years. He was twisting nuts and bolts and solded various pieces of metal together. After a while he'd finally finished.

"Finally…after 10 long years, my greatest project is complete!" He said aloud. "My new Time Absorber 2000! With this I will be able to hurl that wretched Sonic into time and space and he'll become trapped there for eternity! Muahahahahhahahaha!" He laughed manically.

"It's a pity though, really. It has so much power that it can only send one body through the time portal at one time. But one shot is all I need and then Sonic will be out of my way and I'll be able to take over the world! Muahahahahha!"  
------

Later on that evening, Shadow was still up checking over Amy's final guest list to the beach party. The time was about 12:30am. Amy had gone to bed a few hours ago, as the strain of being pregnant made her more tired than usual.

Shadow wasn't tired though.

He was sitting on a large sofa, just near a table. He read the list aloud to himself thinking of how and when to make contact with them.

"Let's see…Well Sonic already knows so that's one person done. Tails we can contact by videophone. Trouble is how do we get the news the Rouge and Knuckles? Knuckles is on the Floating Island but Rouge could be anywhere…."

Shadow sighed. He was beginning to feel heavy and tired.

"I should leave this 'till morning. But what else is there to do when you can't sleep?" he said to himself.

He got up and wandered out to the balcony again. He leant on the railing and looked out to the sea.

It calmly swayed onto the sand every so often. The sky was clear that night so the moon was fully reflected from the ocean's surface. The atmosphere made Shadow become even more tired. He yawned loudly and rubbed his head.

"Ok ok I'm going…" he said to himself and wandered back indoors.

A few hours later, the sun rose and morning came around. Amy and Shadow had awoken together and Amy set about to making invites for her guests. She sat at her computer and began typing.

Downtown, Sonic had woken up too. He was on his morning run through the centre of the city. He stopped at a huge shopping centre and looked through various windows to try and find some party stuff. He wandered into random shops, not really thinking about whether or not the shop actually sold any party things.

After a few hours he'd eventually bought a cool variety of things for the beach bash.  
Balloons, a new pair of sunglasses, a rather large chocolate cake…it went on.

"This is gonna rock!" Sonic said to himself carrying his many shopping bags.  
------

Amy had finished her invites and was ready to email them to her friends. She sent 3 copies to Tails, as she didn't know whether or not Knuckles or Rouge had a computer. Just as she sent them her video phone rang. Shadow answered it.

"Hello?" he said  
The screen fuzzed and Tails' face appeared. He certainly looked older. He had more hair around his head and face.

"Hey Shadow! It's me Tails."  
"Hey there, Fox boy. Long time no see."  
"Yeah! I know!"

Just then Amy walked up behind Shadow and peered at the screen.

"Hey Tails! I just sent you an email!" she said waving at the screen.  
"Yeah I just got it!" Tails answered. "But why 3 copies?"  
"Oh well I didn't know if Knuckles or Rouge had an email and I know that you're quite close below Angel Island so – "

Tails chuckled.

"Don't worry Amy. I'll send them on for you. I'm actually gonna go visit them today anyway."  
"Rouge is on Angel Island?"  
"Yup. Her and Knuckles have been living up there for years now!"  
"Cool! Thanks for sending them on for us Tails."  
"No problems! I better go get the Tornado ready now. But you can count on my attendance for Wednesday!" Tails gave a thumbs up.

"OK Tails! Bye!"

The screen turned off but almost immediately the video phone rang again. Amy answered it. This time it was Sonic.

"Hey guys! I just got a ton of stuff from the city for this party!"

Amy and Shadow saw Sonic bend down and pick up a load of shopping bags.

"See? I got balloons, cake, music everything for an awesome get together!" he said proudly.  
"Good work, Sonic!" Amy complimented.  
"Yup! Just thought I'd let you know. I better go now so I'll see you guys on Wednesday!"

And with that, the screen turned off once again.


	3. The early arrival

**I had my first 2 GCSE exams! eek (German speaking on Monday and Drama today) lol so yeh now that they r outta the way here's the next chapter. The more exciting stuff will come soon i promise. This is just to build up just how much Shadow looses later on you know? ok lol here we go!**

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**Chapter 3**

A few days later, Wednesday finally arrived. The time was 10:30 am and the party was gonna start in 3 hours. Shadow was lying in bed, semi –conscious. Amy had already gotten up.

Eventually, Shadow opened his eyes fully and sat up. He rubbed his face and yawned, stretching his arms out. He stood up and wandered downstairs. Amy was dressed and sitting on the sofa reading a magazine and drinking tea in her favourite spotty giant mug. She looked up as Shadow walked down the stairs.

"I see the creature of night has finally decided to drag itself from it's layer." Amy said chuckling.

Shadow smiled sarcastically.

"Yeah yeah yeah!" he said, half laughing. "What time did you get up?"  
"An hour ago, maybe? I just couldn't sleep anymore! I'm just exciting that's all!"  
"I can see that."

Shadow sat down beside Amy and kissed her on the forehead.

"We should get ready soon." Amy said.  
"We have three hours, hun. Besides Sonic has most of the stuff. I think he's more excited than you are!"

Amy laughed.

"Yeah he's like that, I guess."  
She sighed and rubbed her belly.

"He was kicking like mad last night, you know." She said. "Like a premier League soccer player!"

Shadow smiled and put his hand on her stomach.

"Must be eager to get out!" he said.  
Amy chuckled.

The two sat there in a moment of bliss, thinking about what this child would bring to their lives.

A few hours later, Shadow and Amy finally managed to get their things together and head down to the beach. As they'd already suspected, Sonic was already there. He'd laid out a huge table of food and drink and there were many deck chairs, each with a little table. A big stereo also sat on the sand and Sonic was just about to put music on when he heard his two friends coming up behind him.

"Hey guys!" he said waving rather frantically.  
He was holding a variety of CDs in one hand and a half eaten ice cream cone in the other.

Shadow laughed.

"Hey there. Are you on some kind of sugar rush?" he said nudging his head at the ice cream.  
Sonic laughed rather loudly.

"Yeah well I'm just excited about this party and couldn't resist buying a cone because I mean I was just hungry and I thought "Hey the guys wont be here for a bit so ….Yeh!" he said very quickly in one breath.

Amy and Shadow blinked.  
"Oooooo…K…" they said.

Just then footsteps could be heard behind them.

"Hey there guys!" said a voice.

All three turned around and saw Tails. He was carrying a large bag of crisps (A/N chips for all u American dudes).

"Hey there Tails! It's good to see you!" Amy said and hugged her friend.  
"You too! And you've gotten so big! How long until its due now?" Tails asked.  
"About 2 weeks now." Shadow answered.

Just then the three of them got a jump start as music blared from Sonic's massive stereo. Sonic began dancing, ice cream around his mouth. Tails laughed.

"We should all know by now not to let Sonic near ice cream." He said.

As the time went by guests began arriving. Knuckles and Rogue had gotten the message and arrived together. Knuckles was taller and had longer spikes…he hadn't changed dramatically. Rouge was wearing a purple bikini top and white shorts. Again, apart from her wings being slighter bigger and a few little tufts of hair on her forehead, she hadn't changed much.

Cream arrived shortly afterward. She was now 16 and her ears had grown a lot longer. Also, she held her devoted chao friend, Cheese in her arms. Cheese had now evolved into a Hero Chao.

A few hours into the party, some of the others had gone into the sea to play water polo. (Sonic and Knuckles vs Shadow and Rouge)  
Amy was sitting in a deck chair, taking in the afternoon sun. Cream was sat on the deckchair next to her.

"You and Shadow look so cute together, Amy. I knew you'd be something one day." Cream said, in her teen like, almost preppy, voice.

"Thanks." Amy replied. "To be honest with you, I'd always thought I'd end up with Sonic."

"Yeah most people did, except Sonic I guess!" said Cream.  
"Yeah that's true." Amy chuckled.

Just then she felt a jolt in her belly. She gasped and sat upright, putting her hand on her stomach.

"Amy?" Cream blinked. Amy began to gasp for breath.

"Cream, where's Shadow?" she gasped.  
"I'll get him for you." Cream replied quickly. She gasped as she saw her friend's water break.

Amy groaned in pain.  
" Why now? Its too early!" she yelled.

"Shadow! Get over here now!" Cream yelled out.

Cream put her arms around Amy and sat down next to her. Shadow was there in a matter of seconds.

"What's happening?" he asked.  
"Shadow…the baby's coming" Amy said breathlessly.


	4. Inpatience is a virtue

**I drew some pics to go with the story the other night but cnt put them up coz my scanner is all screwed up lol  
Here's the next chapter**

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**Chapter 4  
**  
That evening, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Rouge and Cream n Cheese were sitting in the hospital waiting room. They'd been sitting there for a good few hours already and had gotten tired. Shadow had gone in with Amy.

Sonic stretched and sighed. He looked over at Cream.

"Does it usually take this long to have a baby?" he said impatiently and sounding rather stupid.  
"Don't ask me!" Cream replied.

"I know we've been waiting a long time, Sonic. But our friend's having a baby right now. We gotta be here for her!"Rouge said.

"I know that, of course I do." Sonic replied. "It's just…why does this baby keep changing its mind?"  
"What do you mean?" Knuckles asked.

"Well earlier it seemed that it couldn't wait to get out here. But now it's-"  
"He!" Cream butted in. "The baby's a boy, you know."  
"How do you know?" Sonic said.  
"Amy was telling me at the beach. She had a scan a few weeks ago."

"Anyway," Sonic said, "Now he is taking his sweet time to get here, you know?"  
"Oh shut up doofus!" Rouge said.

Sonic folded his arms in a slight huff at being shushed at. Just then Shadow rushed in breathing, out of breath. Everyone blinked and stood up.  
None of them spoke, waiting for Shadow to tell them any news.

Shadow gasped for breath. There were tears dwelling in his eyes.

"He…he's here…" he said.

Everyone smiled.  
"That's great!" Tails said.  
"Is he ok?" Sonic asked.  
"Yeah…everything's fine…come see…" Shadow gasped.

Shadow led his friends through to Amy's room. As he opened the door, Amy looked up. She looked tired but smiled. She carried a small bundle in her arms.

"Hey guys." She said.

Everyone gasped in awe as the walked in and saw Amy and her new baby.

The baby had black fur with a small tuft on his head, like Amy's. The tuft was also black but had very small pink streaks. His spikes were the same shape as Shadow's and his eyes were emerald green.

"He's really beautiful." Cream said.  
"Yeah. Congratulations you guys." Knuckles said.

The others nodded in agreement.

"What are you gonna call him?" Tails asked.  
"Well…." Amy thought for a second.  
"Wow, all this time I haven't really thought about it that much." Shadow said.

"I like the name Ray." Amy said.  
"Ray…yeah sounds good to me." Shadow said.

He walked over to Amy's side. She gave him the baby and, all of a sudden, the tears in Shadow's eyes began to fall.

"Hey there Ray." He said to his newborn son. "I'm your daddy…"

Meanwhile Eggman was busy conducting his moves.

"Now that my machine is ready I can finally get rid of Sonic forever! I must do it as soon as possible. I don't want anything to stop me now!" he was saying to himself.

"I shall strike early tomorrow morning, when they will be least prepared. And then I'll be able to take the 7 chaos emeralds and finally be able to use them for my benefit; taking over the world!"

He laughed loudly and manically.


	5. An unexpected guest

The time was now 7am the next day. Shadow fluttered his eyes open and found that he was still in the hospital and had fallen asleep in a big chair just next to Amy's bed. Amy was asleep and their new son, Ray lay asleep in one of the hospital cots, just opposite the bed.

Shadow wiped his eyes and stood up. He looked out of the window. The morning was bright and he could see the sparkling dew resting on the grass.

"I'll go get some air." He thought to himself.

Shadow tip toed from the room and closed the door behind him.

As he walked through the waiting room, Shadow found that it was empty except for one person. Sonic lay asleep, taking up 3 chairs. Shadow blinked as Sonic woke up, yawning and stretching his arms out.

"Sonic, you're still here?" Shadow said.

Sonic sat up.

"Looks that way doesn't it?" he replied, smiling.  
"Why?" Shadow asked.  
"I decided to wait in case you woke up and needed company home. But I guess it slipped my mind." He said, chuckling.

"Well, I'm going for some morning air. You wanna come?" Shadow offered.  
"Go on then." Sonic replied and stood up.

The two hedgehogs walked out of the hospital. They ended up walking down the promenade, just next to the beach (But the hospital wasn't that far away from the beach so they hadn't walked a long distance at all!)

"So, where did the others go?" Shadow asked his friend.  
"Home, I guess." Sonic answered. "We're all really happy for you guys."   
"Thanks. To be honest though, Sonic, I never thought that this would happen." Said Shadow.  
"What do you mean?" Sonic asked.

"Well I always thought she was more destined for you. But then…I dunno. Something just clicked. All those years ago, back on the ARK, she reminded me of Maria and I felt a familiar feeling inside me."

"And over time you guys hit it off!" Sonic said. "Meh. I never really felt that way about Amy, as you most likely know! Don't get me wrong! I care for her dearly but…I'm just not that interested in finding true love quite yet."

The two carried on walking and stopped on the beach. Shadow sat on the wall and looked at the morning sky. Sonic leapt over the wall and stood on the sand. He took in a deep breath of the fresh morning air. 

But then something happened that they didn't expect. The earth began to shake slightly. The two hedgehogs blinked and looked around.

"What's going on!" Sonic yelled above the thudding noises.

Shadow jumped down from the wall and landed next to Sonic. They began to hear a familiar laughter from beneath them. It sounded muffled but they could make out who it was.

"Oh no…" Shadow thought.

Suddenly the ground beneath their feet burst apart. The two of them flung themselves to the side to avoid falling through the sand. A large drill had appeared there and was spinning loudly and madly. More and more of it arose until it was clear that it was attached to a vehicle. The huge vehicle drove upward until it was fully visible, amongst the sand clouds.

Sonic and Shadow blinked as the sand rested and they saw the thing in full. The door of the machine opened and a small horde of robots jumped out and stood on the sand. They were followed by Eggman.

"Hello there,my friends. It certainly has been a long time! Good to see you again!" he said loudly, grinning with anticipation.

The two hedgehogs stood up carefully.

"I can't say the same about you, Eggman!" Sonic yelled.

"I'm glad I found you so quickly. For now I shall finally get rid of your annoying presence ahead of schedule!" Eggman laughed.

"Yeah yeah yeah! I've heard it all before Eggman! Bring it on!" Sonic shouted back and leapt at Eggman, fists raised.

Shadow blinked as he saw Sonic jump at the doctor.

Eggman's response was very unexpected. He brought out, from behind him, a large gun and whacked it across Sonic's face. Sonic was hurtled back at a strangly fast pace. He hit the wall head first. The wall collapsed as Sonic hit it and a huge dust and sand cloud appeared in the air. Shadow gasped.

"Sonic!" he yelled but there was no response.  
Eggman laughed.

"Muahahahahahaha! I have far more expert plans this time around, you stupid hedgehogs!"

The cloud began to settle and Shadow could now see Sonic lying unconscious, several bricks lying on top of him.

Eggman switched various switched on the gun and a humming noise began to come from it. As the humming became louder, a strange purple light appeared at the firing point of the gun. It became bigger and bigger.

Shadow looked at it in confusing, not knowing quite what to do. Eggman pointed the gun at Sonic.

"This is it you blue vermin. Time for you to be sent away…15 years in the future!" he yelled and fired the gun.

Without thinking, Shadow leapt forward and stood in front of Sonic's unconscious body. As he did so, the purple ray hit him.

Shadow could feel a horrible feeling going through and around his body. He felt as if he were being pulled through the air at a speed that even he couldn't outdo.

Eggman cursed as he saw Shadow disappear in a spark of purple light.

"Bastard! The fool got in the way! The wrong hedgehog has been sent forward in time!" he yelled.

He looked at Sonic's body, lying amongst the debris.

"No matter! I can still take over the world!"

He turned to his robots.

"Pick him up and put him in the truck. With him kept in custody, I'll be able to find the chaos emeralds with no trouble. Then they'll be mine and their power will make me Overlord of this puny planet!"

He laughed loudly as his minions picked up Sonic and thrust him into the huge drill truck.


	6. A confusing new world

**Yay u guys like my fic! Keep reviewing plz! lol Also...  
_ikari123_: soz i'm not giving away the right. I've only really just begun to write the story and it has my own characters in it lol  
soz dnt take it to heart or nething. I may give u the right when it's done tho. Wait n see**

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**Chapter 6**

Shadow could feel himself being thrown forward incredibly quickly. He landed hard on the ground and lay there for a few minutes, unconscious.

Eventually, Shadow moaned in pain and slowly opened his eyes. He could feel that the ground beneath him consisted of crunchy grass blades. As he came to he could seethat he was in some kind of forest. The trees surrounding him were incredibly huge and almost blocked out the sky, which itself was filled with dark smoke.

Shadow stood up cautiously as he took in this new environment.

"Where in the world am I?" he thought to himself.

He decided to investigate further and walked through the forest, keeping his eyes open for any danger. It wasn't long until he reached the edge of the forest and he saw what appeared to be ruins.

Aged buildings covered in vines and various other plants. The road ahead also had weeds and vines growing through and around pieces of it, where it had cracked or broken apart.

In the distance, Shadow could see a huge and dark looking building. It looked a lot newer than the relics that lay before him.

"It looks more like a mansion than anything else." Shadow said quietly.

Just then he heard rustling behind him. He swung around and saw 3 big and stern looking robots carrying weapons. They pointed their weapons at Shadow.

"_Subject identified as R. Hedgehog_" One of the robots said.  
"_You are under arrest by order of the Supreme Ruler. We must take you to him immediately." _Said a second robot.

"R. Hedgehog? I think you must have the wrong guy!" Shadow said. "But there's no way you can take me anyway!"

He leapt at the 2nd robot with incredible speed. He kicked the robot in the face. The robot yelped with shock and Shadow pushed it to the ground, with his foot.

The two other robots began shooting at him. Shadow jump from tree to tree and ran around, avoiding the fires. But then, one suddenly hit him in the shoulder. He yelled aloud in pain and fell just by a tree trunk. The 2 robots and the angry 3rd one surrounded him and pointed the guns at him.

Shadow snarled and clenched his wound.

"_Resistance is futile, hedgehog_" said the robots.

Suddenly, something hit one of the robots and it exploded! Shadow blinked and was just as surprised as the other robots were.

A shape landed in front of Shadow and back flipped, using its legs to kick the 1strobot's chin. The shape then jumped backward into the tree and yelled.

"Chaos Spear!"

Several spears flew down and hit the robots, causing them both to explode. They lay in a pile of wreckage, smoking and frizzling.

Shadow gasped and stood up slowly. The shape landed back in front of him and turned to face him. It stood in the shadows so it couldn't be made out.

"Good thing I was around to help you huh?" said the shape.  
The voice sounded like a young male's voice, quite husky.

Shadow blinked.

"Yes…thanks but…who are you?" he said.

There was no answer.

"Please, come into the light." Shadow said.

Shadow could hear a sigh and then the shape stepped forward. Shadow gasped as he saw that the shape was in fact a hedgehog, which looked almost exactly like him!

The hedgehog's spikes were the same shape as his and his fur was black but he had a tuft of fur on his head that had pink streaks. He wore big red boots with black under soles. He also had a small white tuft of fur on his chest.

"I know who you are though." said the young hedgehog. "You're the guy in this picture."

He put his hands behind his back and took out a folded photograph from his spikes. He walked up to Shadow and gave the photograph to him. Shadow took it and looked at it.

The photo looked quite old and had a few little creases, including one down the middle where it had been folded. The picture itself was of him and Amy Rose in the hospital. She was holding a baby and Shadow stood just next to her.

Shadow didn't say anything.

"This must mean that…you're my father." said the hedgehog, breaking the silence.

Shadow looked up.

"Ray…?" he asked.  
The hedgehog nodded.

Shadow was shocked. His son had only been born yesterday and now he was a young adult!

"That means you're name is Shadow, isn't it?" said Ray.  
"Yes that's right." Shadow replied.

"Wow… who'd of thought the first person I bump into on a Saturday morning was my father…especially after everyone told me you were dead." Ray said.  
"Dead?" Shadow said.

He gave the photograph back to Ray.

"Yeah. The day Robotnik took over you-"

"Whoa whoa whoa! Eggman's the Supreme Ruler now?"

"Yeah but to be honest with you, I don't know much about it. All I know is that I'm fighting against his rule and fighting for Uncle Sonic's freedom!"

"What? Sonic's been captured?"

"Have you been living under a rock all this time or something?"

"The last thing I remember is being back at the beach…"

"Beach?"

Ray shrugged.

"You need to catch up! Come on, I'll take you home. You need to get that wound fixed anyway."  
"Before we do just please tell me something." Shadow said.  
"Shoot." Ray answered.

Shadow pointed to the ruins.

"What is that?" he asked.  
"It used to be Station Square." Ray answered. "Or so my mum told me."

He began to walk away and Shadow hastily followed.

"Speaking of my mum, shewill be glad to know you aren't dead!" Ray said over his shoulder. "She's been a bit low since you disappeared, you know."

Ray then began to run. He had an incredible gift of speed, just like his father and his uncle Sonic. Shadow sped after him, clutching his shoulder.

"Hey! You can run too! Now I know where I got my gift from!" Ray said.

The two hedgehogs sped of through the forest, one after the other.


	7. Explanations

**Here's a nice long chapter for u all! I'm gonna try and scan in those pics i drew l8er and show u so i pray tht my scanners works now lol. Also thanks to the ppl who still review my last fic "In the aid of Love." Im glad u like the ending:D**

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**Chapter 7**

Very soon, Shadow and Ray arrived in a deep part of the forest. It was completely hidden by trees and plant life. Ray kicked at the floor with his heel and a small hole opened in the ground. Shadow blinked.

"Down here." Ray said and jumped down the hole.

Shadow followed.

It was a short slide until Shadow reached the bottom. He found himself in an huge underground tunnel which, over years had been developed for people to walk through. Ray led the way down the long tunnel and Shadow gazed at his new surroundings as he followed.

Eventually they reached another hole, which Ray crawled through. Again, Shadow did the same.

They emerged into what appeared to be a small colony of houses built up from the ground. It looked less modern than the apartments and houses Shadow was used to.  
People were working busily all around him, raking, digging and other things. Young children were running around and playing.

As the two hedgehogs walked forward people stopped and stared at them, amazed at their similarities. One of the children stopped running after her friend and ran up to Ray.

"Way Way! Who is your fwiend?" said the child, smiling.

She was a little fox girl aged about 4 or 5. She was very small compared to Ray and looked very similar to Tails, except she only had one tail instead of two. The girl wore a cute yet obviously hand made blue dress and had big blue eyes.

"Hey there Sandy. We're just gonna see my mum. Sorry, I can't play right now." Ray said to her and began to walk again. Shadow hastily followed and the girl blinked as they left.

"Is that…?" began Shadow.  
"Sandy. Yeah, she's Tails' daughter."  
"Who's her mother?" Shadow asked.  
"We don't know. Some fox girl who had escaped from Robotnik. But she died at the birth. Anyways, we've got more important things at hand right now!"

The two reached a house which was quite bigger than the rest.

"Well, this is my home!" Ray said and opened the door.

They stepped into the front room.

The house didn't really have many rooms, in fact it was basically one big room. 2 beds lay at the far right hand corner and not far away were some very basic kitchen items; an old fashioned cooker, a kettle and things like that.  
In front of them were some chairs and a small round table. There was also a small TV just next to it. More toward the centre of the house there was what appeared to be a manhole cover. It probably led down to some kind of shelter.

"Mum?" Ray called.  
"Just a second!" came a voice from below the manhole cover.  
"There's someone here who I think you should see!" Ray called again.  
"Ok ok! I'll be out in a minute!" came the voice again.

Ray turned to Shadow.

"Sorry. She must be fixing up our shelter." He said.

Shadow nodded and they both sat down at the table.

Just then the manhole cover was opened and Amy popped her head out. Her spikes had grown longer, shoulder length to be exact, and she wore a basic red dress, which almost touched the floor. She emerged withher back facing Shadow and Ray.

She climbed out of the floor. Shadow swallowed as he saw her and stood up.

"Amy." He said.

Amy stopped and turned around slowly.

"Shadow…?" she said.

She couldn't believe it. She ran to Shadow and flung her arms around him, crying like mad.

"Shadow! I thought you were dead! Where've you been all these years?" She sobbed.  
"It's OK Amy. I'm here now. In fact, Ray saved me from some of Eggman's henchmen."

Amy looked at her son. Ray smiled and put his hand behind his head.

"But I think I need some explanations here." Shadow continued.  
"Ditto!" Amy replied. "Come and sit down and I'll tell you what you want to know."

The three hedgehogs sat down, Amy and Ray on the opposite side to Shadow.

"So what's happened here? What happened to Station Square and to Sonic?" Shadow asked eagerly.  
"Well…" Amy began but was suddenly interrupted at a knock on the door.  
"Oh Ray go answer that will you?"

Ray did so. A few seconds later he came back in with Knuckles. He had grown significantly but look worn out and tired. He appeared to have not as much strength as he did before.

"Hey Amy. I just came to ask.."  
He suddenly spotted Shadow sitting at the table. He blinked in shock.

"Sh..Shadow?" he said stammering.

Shadow nodded.

"He's come back, Knuckles!" Amy said happily. "I was just about to tell him what's happened here."

"I can't believe it! Where've you been all this time!" Knuckles asked, pulling up a chair.

"I'll explain when you guys tell me what's going on." Shadow answered.

"OK…well back to 15 years ago. I looked out of the window from the hospital and saw you and Sonic fighting Eggman on the beach. Then you just disappeared! Eggman took Sonic away in his truck. I couldn't do anything.

"Over the next few days Eggman was able to find the 7 chaos emeralds and used their power to take over the world! He captured all the humans from Station Square and turned them into mindless slaves. The city itself was left to grow old and no one has been through there in a long time."

"We managed to escape and build our own resistance to his rule underground. It's les advanced as we once were but we've got to live!"

"What about you Knuckles?" Shadow asked. "Why aren't you on Angel Island?"

"Well, since Eggman had the power of the chaos emeralds at hand he needed to maintain their power. I'll explain….

I sat just next to the emerald, half asleep. It was early evening and the cool wind was sending me to sleep. But suddenly Eggman appeared with his new soldiers and stole the master emerald. They captured me too but I managed to escape and come here."

Shadow was a little taken aback by all that had happened.

"And…What about Sonic?" he asked.

"Well, as I said he was captured by Eggman the day you disappeared. He's been there since. Eggman won't kill him because he takes pleasure in watching him suffer. I mean, wouldn't you if you were him?"

Just then there was another knock at the door. Ray went to answer it. This time he came back with Tails.  
He'd grown too and the tuft of hair on his head was longer. Other than that he looked the same.  
He had the same reaction as Knuckles, when he spotted Shadow sitting at the table.

After he greeted Shadow, with a big hug, they continued.

"Since Sonic disappeared, everyone's hopes have died. But we can't let that happen to us." Tails said.  
"If only we could put action to those words, Tails." Knuckles said.  
"We could you know…" Shadow said quietly.

Everyone blinked at him.

"What?" Amy said.  
"We can stop this." Shadow said. "We could go set Sonic free and destroy Eggman's base! Think about it. You've got me now and Tails you still make stuff right?"

"Well yeah but…"  
"Well then you could make some gadgets to help us out! Plus Ray is a strong little kid. He could help me out."

Ray looked up.

"Really?" he said.  
"But Shadow what if…?" Amy started.  
"Don't be afraid of Eggman! We weren't before were we? Come on! We can do this!"

He put his hand in the centre of the table.

"Who's with me?"

Knuckles smiled and put his hand on top of Shadow's.

"I'm in!" he said.  
"Me too!" Ray said and put his hand in.

Tails looked a little hesitant but then put his hand in. They all looked at Amy. She sighed and put her hand in.

"Ok Shadow, I trust you." She said.


	8. Trapped in a cage of sorrow

Here's the next chapter! Enjoy!  
Also i always 4get to do this!

**COPYRIGHT  
Sonic and related characters are copyrighted by SEGA. Ray and Sally and other related characters are copyrighted by me.  
**

* * *

**Chapter 8  
**  
Past the abandoned city was the Supreme Ruler's mansion. In that mansion there was a dark prison. It had many cages and it proved to be very good as nobody could escape through bars created by an electric current. Anyone who dared to try would be toasted for sure.

The cells were empty save for one, the cell furthest to the end of the prison. It had the least light. In that cell was a hedgehog, sitting against the wall with his arms dropped at his sides. It was clear that this hedgehog was tired and he had many cuts and bruises on his body. His head was moved inward, looking as if he were asleep or dead. Yet he was alert. The prisoner also wore some kind of large collar around his neck.

In the corner of the wall he was leaning on, there were many cobwebs. There were also words, which had been scraped into the wall. They were words like "Fading" "Hopeless" and "Forgive me"

On the end wall was a small barred window, through which a dim red light shone through, from the main building. The light lit up the hedgehog's face a little but not fully.

The prisoner was in fact, Sonic. He hadn't changed that much. The only major difference was that his spikes had grown longer.

Sonic sighed and closed his eyes. A horrible echo of memories waved in his mind, playing again and again and again. It was the sound of people screaming, evil laughter and explosions.

He shuddered.

Just then he heard the sound of the entrance door to the prison open with a hiss. Two humans wearing grey uniforms walked in. They stopped at Sonic's cage. Sonic looked up slightly, a rather blank expression on his face.

"It is time hedgehog." Said one of the humans.  
"The Supreme Ruler orders you to-" began the other.  
"Go to Room C. I know…I know" Sonic interrupted sighing.

Sonic painfully pushed himself upward and watched as the electric bars switched off. Just then Sonic made a run for it. He dashed past the expressionless humans, who blinked as he ran past. One of the humans quickly pulled out what appeared to be a remote from his pocket. He pressed a large red button and pointed the remote to where Sonic had just ran.

Sonic's collar began to buzz and an agonising surge of pain suddenly swept through his body. He screamed in pain and jumped from the unexpectance of it all. He fell to the floor and clenched his body as it went through the electric shock.

A horrible laugh came through large loudspeakers on the walls.

"Now now, my friend. We musn't try that again, must we? We know what happens to you if you try running away!" said the voice.

The shocking stopped and Sonic lay half unconscious on the prison floor. He rolled onto his side, moaning in pain.

"Take him to Room C!" came the booming voice of the loudspeaker. "He'll have double of his beatings as punishment for his actions."

The voice laughed loudly as the two mindless humans walked up to Sonic, grabbed his arms and dragged him across the floor and out of the prison.

Back in the forest, Shadow was talking things over with Tails and Ray. They were sitting in the shelter in Ray and Amy's house. It was now late evening, coming up to 11o'clock, the day after he and the guys had agreed on their mission.

"So are you two confident about the plan?" Shadow asked.

Ray nodded.

"Yep. You and me head toward Eggman's base." He said. "Then we sneak in, rescue Sonic, beat Eggman, free the humans and destroy his base!"

"You make it sound so simple, Ray" Tails said. "But you'll need a strategy to beat Eggman. He's a lot stronger now that he has the chaos emeralds. Luckily, I've designed these gadgets for you to use on your mission!"

He brought out a large box and opened it. Inside was an array of small electronic devices and gizmos. Tails picked up two watches.

"These are satellite/ communication devices. They can keep you in contact with me, so I can help you out on the way. Also, it can produce a map of whatever surrounding it is in. So you'll be able to navigate yourself around Eggman's lair and find Sonic easier."

"Cool!" Ray said and took one and put it on his wrist.

Tails then picked up two guns.

"These are special disarmament guns, designed to tangle up any computer system. You can sue them on Eggman's robots. Their circuits will fry!"

He gave Shadow the guns and his wrist communicator.  
He then picked up two pairs of spy glasses. (A/N like Rouge's in SA2B)

"These can help you see and security wires or lasers Eggman may have set up around his facility. Try not to trip any alarms while you're there, for your sake."

Shadow nodded and took the glasses, giving one to Ray, along with the gun.  
"And finally, belts to carry your guns." Said Tails and gave Shadow and Ray each a brown belt.

"Wow! Thanks Tails!" Ray said.  
"Yes, these will surely be useful. Thanks." Shadow said.  
"No problems!" Tails said.

He looked at the clock.

"Wow. It sure is getting late! Let's get some sleep. You'll both need your energy for tomorrow." He said, yawing.

Ray nodded sleepily and climbed up the ladder and through the manhole cover. Shortly after Shadow and Tails followed.

Shadow thanked Tails, once again and let him out through the front door. Shadow turned around yawing and saw Ray get into bed. He yawned.

"Shadow?" Ray said.  
"Yes?"  
"I have to ask you…where have you been all this time? Why didn't you come and stop Eggman earlier?"

Shadow walked over to Ray's bed and sat on the end of it.

"To be honest with you Ray, I don't know where I've been. I mean, I don't feel like I've been anywhere…"

Shadow shrugged.

"I guess I was trapped in space, slowly being dragged through time."

"What was it like before then?" Ray asked.  
"It happened the day after you were born…" Shadow began.  
"Yeah, it was my 15th yesterday." Ray said.

Shadow smiled.

"Happy Birthday." He said.  
"Thanks." Ray replied.

A short pause followed. Ray broke it.

"I always had a feeling you were alive though. I mean everyone was trying to convince me you were dead. Even my mum was beginning to loose hope. But…I dunno. Something inside me just told me that you were still out there somewhere, even though I didn't really know you…"

Shadow looked down.

"I know what happened wasn't your fault. I just wish that…maybe it didn't happen at all…" Ray said sleepily.

"Me too Ray." said Shadow.

He sighed.

"You'd best be getting to sleep, son. We've got a big day ahead of us."

Ray snuggled up in his bedcovers and closed his eyes. Shadow stood up, as Ray fell asleep, and went to sit down in Amy's big armchair across the room.

He lay in the chair and eventually drifted off into a deep sleep.


	9. A new realisation

**Here's the next chapter! I'm gonna tyr my scanner over the weekend to get my pics up!  
Fingers crossed!**

COPYRIGHT  
Sonic and related characters are copyrighted by SEGA. Ray the Hedgehog and related characters are copyrighted by me. This storyline is also copyrighted by me so no stealing!  


**

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**

**Chapter 9**

The following afternoon, Shadow and Ray were making the final check, that they had everything ready. They were stood outside Amy's house and the whole group of the resistance was gathered around them.

Amy, Knuckles and Tails went to say good luck to their friends. Knuckles went first to Shadow.

"Give it your best shot, Shadow. We know you can do it" He said.

Shadow nodded and smiled.

"We'll do our best." He said.

Knuckles gave a thumbs up to Ray, who gave one back, and Amy ran to her son and hugged him.

"Please be careful out there, Ray! I couldn't bare it if something happened to you out there!" she sobbed.  
"Mum! I'll be fine, I promise!" Ray said, almost being choked by Amy's hug.

Amy eventually let go and walked to Shadow. He put his hand on her face and they smiled at each other.

"Don't worry. We'll make it." Shadow said to her.

Amy nodded.

Tails stepped forward next, holding his daughter Sandy.

"Bye bye Way Way" she said, waving to Ray sweetly.

Ray smiled and waved back.

"I'll see you real soon OK Sandy?" he said and Sandy nodded.  
"Good luck to both of you." Tails said. "Our freedom, along with Sonic's, rests on your shoulders."

"No need to be dramatic Tails! We have it under control." Ray said.

Shadow chuckled.

"He's right. We'll be out of there before that Egg Head even notices our presence." He said.

Tails nodded.

"Right… right. Well you can still contact us if you need help or advice." He said.  
"Thanks Tails." Shadow replied.

He looked over to Ray.

"We better get going!" he said.

Ray nodded.

"Right!"

Everyone waved and wished their good luck as the two hedgehogs sped off through the tunnel.

A few moments later Ray and Shadow emerged into the forest. The carefully shut the entrance to the secret hideout, looking around for any of Eggman's spies. When it was clear that nobody was around, Shadow flipped open his Wrist Navigator.

The map bleeped, showing his and Ray's location and a wide map of the forest.

"We've got to head Northward to Station Square. It'll be a long run but nothing we can't handle, right?" Shadow said to his son.

Ray nodded.

"Yeah! Let's go!" he said with anticipation and zoomed off. Shadow blinked and followed suit.

"Ray! This isn't a game!" he yelled, running after Ray.

…

Meanwhile, Sonic had been thrown back in his cell. He had fresh blood coming from his mouth and a big bruise just above his left eye. He lay on his side, panting for breath. His breathing was rusty and painful to his chest.

Facing the wall, Sonic lay exhausted and beaten. However he'd become used to his beatings as if they were a daily routine, which they were in a way.

Every day he was ordered to the mysterious Room C, where'd he be forced to carry out tiring and rather pointless labouring tasks. Then, for no apparent reason, he was beaten. Today he'd had extra for trying to escape.

Sonic didn't know what had gotten over him. He had just thought for a split second that he could get out. Yet he failed and just ended up with more pain and embarrassment, on his behalf.

"There's no point in trying again…" Sonic thought miserably. "I know I won't get anywhere…I'll just get more pain…no…no more"

Sonic rolled onto his back, wincing in pain. He stared at the cobwebbed ceiling and, with his new realisation in mind, began to cry silently.

…

In the main building of the humongous base, a large chair was set out. In this large chair sat a large man. He was facing a dozen monitor screens. One of them showed the prison cells and the man smiled evilly as Sonic was shown on screen, in his misery.

"I've wanted this almost all of my life." The man said.

The man was, as you may have already guessed, the new Supreme Ruler…Dr Eggman.

…

After about an hour and a half's run, Shadow and Ray had made it to Eggman's base. They hid amongst large rocks surrounding the area.

The base was guarded by a huge amount of robots and had a wire fence surrounding it. There also security cameras at almost every turn.

"There are robot guards everywhere. How are we gonna sneak in?" Ray asked.  
"There has to be some kind of duct around here…" Shadow said, almost to himself.

He scanned the area with his eyes but couldn't see anything useful.

"Damn it!" he said in frustration.

Ray pushed a small button on his watch device and held up his wrist. A small green light emerged from it, as if it were scanning something.

"Ray, what are you doing?" Shadow asked.

Ray didn't answer and looked at his watch as it bleeped.

"Awesome! There is a way in!" he said.  
"What?"  
"Check it out. You can use these things to scan in for any hidden passages and stuff. In this case…"

He showed the screen of his watch to Shadow.

"…air ducts"

Shadow blinked.

"How did you know that?"  
"I figured it out a little bit before we left."

"Oh…ok then." Shadow replied.  
He shook his head.

"OK, we'll go through the air duct and try and get to the where Sonic is from there."

He pushed a button on his communication device.

"Tails. Can you hear me?"  
"Loud and clear. Have you arrived at the base?" Tails answered.  
"Yeah but it's surrounded by bots. We're gonna sneak in through a vent but we need you to tell us exactly when we are over the prison cells, so we can break in through there."

"OK. I'll set up a blue print of the base on the screen and be with you when I'm ready."  
Thanks Tails." Shadow said and let go of the button.


	10. Lightening and harsh rain

**Ta for all the reviwes you guys! They spur me on to write so keep them coming: D  
**

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* * *

**

**Chapter 10**

In the darkness of the evening, Shadow and Ray darted down from the rocks and to the barrier of Eggman's base. They hid around the corner in an area of dark shadow, just away from the main gate. Two robots stood at this gate guarding it whilst various other robots were patrolling within the barrier.

The evening sky became covered with huge grey rain clouds.

Shadow looked up at the fence he and Ray were stood against. He looked at Ray and they both nodded at one another.

Then they both jumped up and over the wall, with great precision. They landed quietly and ran to hide behind another wall. They were now within a few feet of getting into Eggman's base.

The two hedgehogs leant against the wall, keeping their eyes and ears open for any robots to stumble upon their path. Ray looked to the side and saw that the way from there was full of security cameras.

"How further until we reach that duct, Ray?" Shadow whispered.

Ray blinked and pressed a few buttons on his wrist map.

"It's not far from here. We've got to go that way" he whispered back, pointing to where he'd just been looking.  
"Then it's around the second corner on the right. But there are loads of cameras down that way."

Shadow thought.

"I'll take out the cameras. Then you run ahead and get to the duct. I'll be right behind you." He said quietly.

Ray nodded and let his father go in front of him.

The rain began to fall from the dark sky.

Shadow whipped out his gun and, from the safety of darkness, shot out at all the cameras. His aim was very precise and as each beam hit a camera it sparked and fizzed.

"_Now_" Shadow whispered harshly and Ray ran.

Using his speed, Ray managed to zip around the corner without attention being drawn to him. Shadow zoomed after him.

Robots began to bleep, hearing the cameras breaking, and began to gather around that area investigating the commotion. Ray and Shadow quickly jumped down the huge duct and slid down into the base. The air duct was humongous and wide enough for the hedgehogs to crawl through.

Just as they stopped sliding, Shadow's wrist communicator began to bleep.  
It was Tails.

"Shadow! I have the blueprint of Eggman's base. Is wasn't easy to find but- "  
"Good work Tails. How long and which way?"  
"Keep going forward. Then go down the 4th left. After that it's the 3rd right."  
"Thanks Tails. We'll contact you again if we need anything."  
"All right! Don't forget to look out for any hidden security beams! Over and out!"

The communicator flickered and switched off. Shadow sighed.

"OK Ray. Let's go." He said and put on his spy glasses.  
Ray did the same and the two began to crawl through the long air duct.

…

"What's happening to the cameras?" Eggman boomed angrily.  
"There appears to be some kind of technical fault, Sir." Said one of Eggman's slaves.

"Well then fix it!" Eggman yelled.  
"Yes sir!" all the humans said, monitoring various screens.

Eggman sat back in his huge chair and watched like a hawk as the humans did his bidding. He eyed the remaining screens to see any clue as to who did this and how.

Eventually he sighed.

"As long as we have the prison cameras still intact…that's the most important thing."  
He grinned.

"I want to see him suffer, just as I did for almost half of my lifetime!"

He began to chuckle.

"Revenge is so very sweet!"

…

Sonic continued to lie on his back and stare blankly at the dusty, spider invested ceiling. He'd spread out his arms and half closed his eyes. He heard the sounds of rain, hitting the ground outside. Some drops began to spit through the barred window.

The room was dark, as it was lights out.

Sonic sighed and closed his eyes. He began to listen to the sound of the rain. He'd found that doing this took his mind off of things and calmed him down.

Thunder began to boom loudly and brief flashes of lightening appeared.

After a while Sonic opened his eyes again and sat up. As the lightening clashed on the ground, the prison became illuminated for a few seconds. It could then be possible to see the dried blood on Sonic's face.

Sonic stood up and went to the window, allowing the small yet harsh drops of rain to hit his face. Some of the blood began to run off and it smeared as Sonic wiped his face with his hand.

He looked out at his surroundings. He blinked as he thought he saw something. Lightening flashed and, as it did so Sonic thought that he saw two figures on the grounds, running toward a large duct. He gasped and lifted himself up to try and get a better look. But then the lightening hit again and revealed that they'd gone.

"Must have been my mind…" Sonic said to himself.

He dropped back to the prison floor and sat down. He leant his body against the wall and managed to fall into an uncomfortable sleep.

…

A little while later, Shadow and Ray were about to venture down the 3rd turning on the right. But then Shadow stopped.  
Ray almost bumped into him.

"What's up?" he asked.  
"I'm just thinking…maybe we should split up."

Ray blinked.

"The chaos emeralds may be around here somewhere. Then once we've saved Sonic, we can come back and destroy the power supply." Shadow continued.

He flicked on his wrist communicator.

"Tails, are you there?"  
"Yeah. What's the matter Shadow?"  
"I need some directions again. Could you tell me if there's some kind of control room or something on the map?"

Tails paused as he tapped at his keyboard.

"There's some kind of walkway. It has different rooms which each supply power to the base. It appears to be located underneath the building…almost like a basement."

"Where is it from our current location?" Shadow asked.

Again Tails paused.

"You'd have to go backward and go down the 2nd right. From then on it's straight forward."

Shadow looked behind at Ray.

"You got that?" he said.  
Ray nodded.

"But Shadow, aren't you getting Sonic?" Tails asked.  
"Don't worry Tails. It's all part of the plan. Over and out."  
"But wait a- "

Shadow turned off the communicator.

"Can you do that for me Ray? I'll get Sonic while you investigate Eggman's power supply. Try and find the chaos emeralds."

Ray looked a little perplexed.

"You can do it, son" Shadow said.

Ray smiled.

"OK! I'll do it." He said.  
"Great! Good luck. I'll meet you back at the rocks. If neither one of us are there just head back to the hide out OK?"  
"OK!"

Ray backed up and crawled down the right passageway. Shadow continued down toward the prison.


	11. A surprise visit

yay i have the pics scanned!  
http/mercury. pic of Ray

http/mercury. pic of Shadow

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**Chapter 11**

Ray crawled on and on through the vent. It seemed like it would take him days until he'd reach the basement. He stopped to catch his breath and turned on his communicator.

"Tails, can you hear me?"  
"Load and clear!"  
"Can you tell me how far I am from the basement?"

A pause.

"Not long now Ray, but you know I'm unhappy about this, don't you? You and your father shouldn't be splitting up in a place like this."

"Please don't worry. My dad knows what he's doing." Ray replied. "Now come on. Which way do I go from here?"

"Straight ahead then right at the last passage. There'll be some kind of grill on the side of the duct. That'll be your exit."

"Thanks Tails, and please don't worry about us. We'll be fine, OK?" Ray said.

…

Meanwhile, Shadow continued on toward the prison. He began to see a small grill below his hands. He carefully looked through it.

"I think this is it…" he said quietly, to himself. "Time to make a surprise entrance…"

He held his hand up slightly and began to gather energy for a chaos spear.

…

Sonic lay asleep against the uncomfortable wall. He twitched a little as he heard a shuffling sound from the air duct, in the ceiling. Slowly waking up, Sonic blinked and rubbed his eyes. He looked up at the duct, confusedly.

Just then the ceiling exploded with a loud booming sound. Sonic was completely taken by surprise and gasped as he shielded his face from debris.

…

Eggman was blown back too and blinked as he saw the explosion from the security camera.

"What the hell!" he yelled.

He quickly grabbed a microphone, which projected his voice on the speakers.

"Attention all Guard Robots. Something is going on in the prison. Go there immediately!" he yelled into the mic.

…

Sonic saw a shape jump down from the duct. He couldn't make out who or what it was, as its identity was shielded by the dust and smoke from the explosion. The figure stood facing Sonic and took out a gun.

"Stand back Sonic!" the figure said.

The shape aimed the gun at the control panel above the cage door. It controlled the electric barrier of the cages. The stranger fired the gun and the circuitry of the barrier system blew. The current, preventing Sonic from escaping, vanished.

Sonic blinked as he saw this happen and stood up, backed against the wall.

"Who…who are you?" he asked nervously, not quite taking in what was happening.  
"Sonic, it's me." Came the reply and the figure stepped out of the smoke and into the light.

It was Shadow.

Sonic gasped.

"Sh..Sh..Shadow?" he stammered.

Just then the main door opened and a ton of guard robots ran through.  
Shadow span around and gathered more chaos spears.

He madly fired at the robots, each one exploding as it took a hit. Sonic remained in the sanctity of his cell, shielding his face.

…

Eggman was horrified to see this happen. He sat upright in his chair, jaw dropped. But as the mysterious figure identified himself as Shadow, Eggman suddenly smiled.

"So…" he said "He's finally arrived…"

He chuckled evilly.

Just then one of his slaves got his attention.

"Sir! We've spotted another intruder on camera. He's in the basement."

Eggman looked at the screen and saw Ray jump down from the air duct. The hedgehog looked around before spotting the camera. He then got out his gun and shot it. The screen went dead.

"Don't worry about him for now." He said evilly. "Send more robots to take care of Shadow. We mustn't let Sonic escape! I will take a few of my captains down to the basement myself. Turn off the security alarms in the basement. We'll let Ray walk into our hands… Then he'll soon be on our side…"

Eggman laughed madly.

…

Ray finally found the grill that Tails was talking about and kicked it down. The hole was big enough for him to jump through. He landed on the basement floor.

The basement was a dark orange coloured and not a lot of the lights were working. They flickered and looked as if they were going to die out. Just ahead of Ray were a few steps which lead up to platform. This then turned a corner to a door with "RESTRICTED" painted on it.

Ray looked around and, almost immediately spotted a camera. He whipped out his gun and shot it. His aim was perfect but Ray knew that it had probably been looking at him long enough for someone to figure out where he was.

He slipped on his spy glasses and saw that they were, strangely, no laser security devices about.

"That's strange…" Ray thought.

He shrugged and walked up the steps, eyes open for any hidden robots. He reached the door and saw that there was an ID card swiper.

"Identification Required." Said a computerized voice form the swiper.

Ray shot the swiper and it sizzled and sparked. The door opened and a strange glow came from it.

"How's that for identification?" Ray said and walked through the door.

What he saw certainly did take him aback. He gasped.

Before him stood 7 brightly coloured emeralds, each a different colour, and one huge green emerald in the centre. The emeralds were connected to some kind of machine, which was bleeping and swirling away.

"These must the chaos emeralds…" Ray said quietly to himself.

He took off his spy glasses and walked toward the emeralds. He pressed a button on his wrist watch and scanned in the emeralds. He didn't noticed figures walk in and close the door.

"I was right. This is the main power supply!" Ray said looking at his watch.

Suddenly, something whacked Ray around the back of his head. He yelled out in pain and fell to the floor. He lay on his side, unconscious. Blood dripped from his wound.

"Don't forget, young hedgehog, curiosity killed the cat…" Eggman said. He was stood above Ray's body, with two large robots. One of the robots had blood on its arm.

Eggman then noticed Ray's watch. He unfastened it from Ray's wrist and held it in the air. He grinned then turned to his robots.

"Take him to the mind room." Eggman ordered.

The robots picked up Ray by the arms and dragged him off.


	12. Escape

**Gah the links don't show lol. Soz dudes. I'll figure out how to do it l8er lol  
Thanks for your lovely reviews : D**

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**Chapter 12**

The last remaining robot exploded. Shadow smirked and swirled his gun in his fingers.

"I could get used to this…" he thought.

He turned around and went back to Sonic.

"That's not like you Sonic, hiding from a fight I mean." Shadow said to Sonic, who was backed against the furthest wall in the dark. He slowly walked forward.

Shadow could then see Sonic's wounds and gasped slightly.

"Yeah well…I've learnt that those things mean pain." Sonic replied quietly.

He peered around the corner and saw the remains of the robots. He blinked and turned to Shadow.

"You beat them all on your own?" he said, rather flabbergasted.

Shadow nodded.

"Come on. We have to get out of here." He said and walked to the hole in the air duct, looking up at it.

Sonic confusedly followed.

"Is this all a dream? I've been hoping something like this would happen for so long…I shouldn't of givin up so easily, should I?" Sonic said.

"I thought this was a dream too, Sonic. But this is pretty much real." Shadow replied.  
"It's more like a nightmare…" he added quietly.

Shadow jumped up into the hole in the duct and held out his hand.

"Jump Sonic!" Shadow called and Sonic did so.

Sonic caught hold of Shadow's hand and Shadow pulled him up into the duct.

"Will you be well enough to follow me. We have to move quickly." Shadow asked.  
"I should be fine." Sonic said. "But I haven't properly stretched my legs in such a long time…I don't know if I can run like I used to."

"We'll see but for now just crawl." Shadow said and the two hedgehogs began to crawl as fast as they could.

…

Ray had a horrible feeling in his head. He slowly opened his eyes and went to put his hand to the pain. Only he found that he couldn't.

He blinked and his vision went into focus.

He was kneeling on the floor, his arms attached to the ceiling with strong chains. The room he was in was small and the only light was coming through a small window near the ceiling.

Ray tried to stand up but the length of the chains restricted him from doing so. He struggled and pulled at the chains but soon found that they hurt his back. He gave up, gasping for breath.

Then he blinked.

"Hey…where's my wrist watch?" he yelled, his voice echoing the room.  
"Don't worry. You won't need it anymore." Eggman's voice projected through the speakers.

An evil laugh filled the room and Ray scowled.

"You'll soon be one my side, hedgehog. There's no way you'll be able to resist."  
"Fuck you Egg Head! I'll never join you!" Ray yelled back.  
"Oh but I think you will…"

Ray gasped as a huge hidden screen, in front of him, switched on. It was a plain green colour. Then strange waves began to come in view. Ray tried to look away but, somehow the waves became appealing to him. They seemed to reach out a swirl around his head. His eyelids began to flicker and his head became heavy and moved inward. He could hear a voice call out to him…all other noise was blocked out.

"From now on, you will only answer to Eggman…you'll forget everyone else in your life…Eggman is your one priority now…" the voice said. It sounded sweet and melancholy. It stuck in Ray's brain and cleared out all his other memories.

"…I shall…" Ray said blankly.

…

Shadow and Sonic jumped out of the air duct and were now outside.

Since Sonic found it hard to run again, both because of being isolated for 15 years and his injuries, Shadow put Sonic's arm around his shoulder and half carried him as he ran.

Avoiding various bullets shooting at them, Shadow sped through the grounds. They were fast approaching the wire fencing.

"Hold on Sonic!" Shadow shouted and began to speed up.

He ran and, at the last moment, leapt up and over the fence. As he landed on the rocky ground, Shadow skidded slightly but didn't stop. He carried on running.

Seeing that Ray wasn't at the rocks, just ahead of them, Shadow continued to run through to the forest.  
…

Eggman laughed as he saw his new slave fall under the spell. Ray's wrist watch lay on a table, just by Eggman's hand. It suddenly began to bleep and shake. Eggman blinked and picked up the watch.

"Ray…Ray can you hear me?" came a voice from it.

…

When Shadow had reached a deep part of the forest he stopped and Sonic took his arm from around his friend's shoulder. He was still a bit shocked about the aspect of being free, let alone actually escaping Eggman's lair. He stared at his surroundings.

Shadow, meanwhile was fiddling with his communicator.

"Ray…Ray can your hear me?" he said into it.

What replied was a shock to the two hedgehogs. Eggman's evil laughter.

"You fools! You really think you can escape that easily huh?"

"Eggman! Where's my son, you bastard!"  
"He's here with me…he's part of _my_ team now, hedgehog!"

Shadow growled.

"I'm glad to know that you've finally made it out of the space time continuum, Shadow. How was the trip?" Eggman sneered.

"You'll pay for this Eggman!" Shadow yelled and switched off the communicator.

He sighed, clenching his fists.

"Ray, I'm so sorry…" he said to himself.

"I'm sorry Shadow." Sonic said.

"Don't worry about it. At least we know Ray isn't dead. Come on. We better get back to base and tell Tails what's happened."


	13. New Plans

**Whooo! You guys r so nice to me! lol Ta for your reviews, especially my locals (Shadow's Dark Angel, Moulin and anyone who reviews regualary too... soz i forget your names )  
Here's the nextchapter and I'll try get the URL for those pics but they refuse to be shown so..ya know might take me a while to figure out how to do it lol**

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**Chapter 13  
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3 hours had passed since Shadow and Sonic left the base. After a tiring trek, they'd finally made it to the hideout.

The two hedgehogs had become very tired, especially Shadow. He'd been on his feet for a good long while and after learning about Ray's whereabouts a sudden weight of guilt fell onto his shoulders.

Sonic was still a bit confused. He didn't know how Shadow had made it here and why it had taken him so long in the first place. He was also overjoyed to be free but didn't show it much as his wounds were beginning to ache once more, due to the hours of walking. Sonic hadn't been able to run in so long that he'd almost forgotten how. But he was beginning to remember, as he watched his feet whilst walking in the long grass.

They soon reached the secret entrance to the hideout.

Shadow led Sonic through the earth and down the long tunnel.

At the other side of the tunnel, Tails (holding his daughter Sandy) Knuckles and Amy, along with the other few residents, waited anxiously. They blinked as they heard movement and smiled as they saw Shadow climb through the hole. They clapped and cheered.

Shadow smiled and then turned and held out his hand. Sonic's hand emerged and took hold of it and Shadow pulled Sonic through and into the hideout.

Everyone gasped but then cheered for joy to see their hero again. Emotions flew and everyone found a tear to their eyes. Amy gave Sonic a huge hug.

"Sonic! I'm so glad to see you're safe!"

Sonic winced a little as he wounds became crushed by Amy's hug but hugged her back all the same.

"Shadow's to thank for that." He said.

"Amy…" Shadow said.

Amy looked around and then noticed that Ray wasn't with him.

"Where's Ray?" she asked.

Shadow sighed.

"…he's been captured." Shadow replied uneasily. "We split up, you see, I went to get Sonic and he went to find - "

Amy couldn't quite take this in.

"That maniac has my Ray!" she yelped. "Shadow, how…"  
"I'm so sorry Amy. I should have stuck with him. But please don't worry."  
"Don't worry? Our son's being held captive by an insane evil genius and you're saying not to worry!"

"Hear him out Amy. We can still find Ray. I can track down where his last message came from." Tails said.  
"Please Amy, let's go inside and I'll tell you more of what happened." Shadow said to Amy.

"Plus…" Knuckles added "We need to sort out your wounds, Sonic."

Tails' little daughter, Sandy, followed her father and his friends into Amy's house. They all sat down and Amy hurried into the kitchen, in somewhat of a state, to get some hot water and a first aid kit.

Sandy sat on the floor by Sonic's feet.

"My name's Sandy!" said the cute little fox girl. "What's yours?"

Sonic smiled.

"I'm your daddy's friend, Sonic." He said.  
"Do you know where Way Way is?" Sandy asked.

Sonic frowned a little in confusion and looked up at Tails.

"Ray" said Tails.  
"Ah I see! I'm sorry Sandy but I don't but hey! I do know that he's coming back really soon so don't be sad OK?"

Sandy nodded and Amy came back into the room and began to bathe Sonic's wounds.

Tails Shadow and Knuckles went along to Tails' house. The two tailed fox took his friends to his computer, from which he'd been able to access the information needed to help Shadow and Ray on their rescue mission.

"Shadow do you still have your wrist communicator?" Tails asked, sitting down at the computer.

Shadow nodded and unfastened the strap of his watch. Tails took it and plugged it into a wire, connected to the computer's CPU. (A/N That's Central Processing Unit! )

The computer bleeped and buzzed. It then showed up an image of the watch on screen.

"This is a model of your watch Shadow. I'm gonna use it to trace any call you made to Ray or vice versa. We can then access his watch and maybe get some new information."

Shadow and Knuckles blinked. Tails span his chair around to face them.

"You see, I installed a special scanning device into Ray's watch. He can use it to scan in his environment…"

"Ah yes. He showed it off just before we went into Eggman's base." Shadow said.

Tails span back to face the screen and typed various buttons.

"If Ray's scanned in any new information we'll be able to see it from here. We can then pinpoint the location of the watch and that will lead us to Ray." He continued.

The computer bleeped. The screen flashed up a message "COMMUNICATOR 0#2 LOCATED".

"All right! We've found Ray's watch!" Tails said and continued typing.  
"Now, let's see if he has found any new information…"

The computer loaded up the scan files from Ray's watch. The three friends gasped as the image of chaos emeralds and the master emerald appeared on the screen.

"He found the emeralds!" Shadow exclaimed.  
"I don't believe it!" Knuckles gasped.  
"They appear to be attached to some kind of machine…" Tails said. "It must be sucking up the emerald's energy and powering up the base."

"That idiot!" Knuckles yelled. "The emerald's powers aren't to be used in such a selfish way."

"We have to control the emerald's power somehow…maybe we can use it against him." Shadow suggested.

"Yes but that would call for the Guardian." Tails said.

Both Shadow and Tails looked at Knuckles.

"Don't you worry. I'm in. That maniac will pay for his disregard for the Master Emerald's true power!" The echidna said through clenched teeth.

"And for what he's done to my son!" Shadow said. "What he's done to us all, in fact!" "Alright, I have the location saved and I'm putting it into your wrist watch, Shadow." Tails said.  
"For now, you had better go rest up. You've been through a lot tonight and have more plans ahead. That goes for you too Knuckles. We all appreciate what you've done, you know." Tails said.

"No problem. I just want an Eggman free world." Shadow replied.  
"Don't we all…" said Knuckles quietly.


	14. Good luck and Goodbye

**Chapter 14**

The evening began to draw on and Shadow was walking slowly back toward Amy's house. As he approached it, he saw Sonic sitting on the cool grass by the front door. He had a few bandages around various parts of his chest and his bruises were going down.

"You alright there, Shadow?" Sonic called as he saw Shadow walking toward him.

Shadow sat down beside Sonic and sighed.

"Yeah. Tired, I guess." He replied.  
"I can imagine, after all you've done today. I owe you big, Shadow. I'd always dream of somehow escaping that god forsaken place…A figure would come and lead me away. But then I'd wake up and realise the truth. Then today I wake up from the same dream and find that it's coming true!" Sonic said.

Shadow smiled.

"It's OK Sonic. I had to do something to help. The people around here had lost all hope…But now…"

Shadow sighed again.

"I just...I justfeel that sense of loss, like back in the past. I let that Egg Head take my son. Who knows what he's going through?"

"Don't put yourself down, Shadow." Sonic said. "You never lost hope for me so don't let the same happen to Ray."

Shadow nodded. There was a pause. After a while Sonic spoke again.

"Tell me Shadow. How did you get in this situation? The last thing I remember of you was the beach party 15 years ago. Then…nothing."

"Well we were fighting Eggman, remember? But he knocked you out and was gonna send you through time. But…I stepped in front of you and got sent here instead of you. I think he must have captured you after I disappeared." Shadow explained.

Sonic blinked.

"You…you took the hit for me?" he said.

Shadow looked down and shut his eyes, waiting for an onslaught of jokes.

"Ha! I knew you had a soft centre in there somewhere!" Sonic said. "I owe you a lot more now! Thanks Shadow."

Shadow looked up again.

"Don't mention it." He said.  
…

Ray was stood emotionless in the middle of Eggman's control room. Eggman was sat in his big chair, holding the hedgehog's wrist watch. He was facing Ray his shadow overloomed him.

"Go to the central power room. You'll know when you are needed. Remember when you see the hedgehog I told you about, make sure he doesn't get to the emeralds! You understand?" Eggman boomed.

"Yes sir..." Ray answered blankly and began to walk to the room where he'd been discovered.

...

The following morning, Shadow was stood just by the front door talking to Amy.

"I promise you, Amy. We'll get Ray back." Shadow was saying.

Amy trusted Shadow more than anything but she couldn't help but cry. Shadow put his hands to her face and wiped away the tears with his fingers.

"I trust you Shadow." Amy said.

Shadow smiled.

Tails was making the final preparations for the trip. Sandy was tugging at his tails trying to get his attention. He'd gathered his old piloting gear. Knuckles looked a little confused.

"I thought we were going by foot?" he said.  
"Nah. I know a much quicker way." Tails said.

He led Knuckles Shadow and Amy (and Sandy who followed quickly after them) out into the forest. He brought out a remote from a bag, which he carried around his shoulder. He pressed a button and, as if from no where the sound of a large door, like a garage door, could be heard creaking as it opened.

The gang looked around and then spotted it. Off in the distance, in a high cliff toward the left, a platform was emerging from the cliff's wall. Everyone gasped as they saw a small plane emerging with the platform.

"You didn't think I'd stop working on the Tornado, do you?" Tails said, smiling with pride.

"How come you didn't tell anyone about this?" Amy asked.  
"Well, I couldn't risk it getting to Eggman, even if it meant not telling my closest friends." Tails replied.

He pressed another button on the remote and the plane's engine began to whir. It was electronically launched from the platform. Everyone bent their heads back as the watched the plane flying toward them. The plane landed just next to Tails, with a safe bump.

Tails threw his stuff in the front seat.

"We'll get there a lot quicker by air than by foot." He said.  
"Why didn't you suggest it before then?" Shadow asked.

"Because! I knew that you and Ray would get there in no time. I mean, you do both have the gift of speed. But this time you'd have me and Knuckles dragging you behind. Plus, she needs the flight."

Shadow turned to Sonic.

"You aren't coming?" he asked the blue hedgehog.

Sonic picked up Sandy.

"I'd drag you behind. I still don't know how to run properly. Plus…"

He shuddered.

"Just thinking about what that place was like…" he said quietly.

"Don't worry Sonic. You can stay here and look after things." Tails said.  
"Daddy!" Sandy cried, holding out her arms toward Tails.

Tails walked over to her and held her hand.

"Don't cry sweetie. Uncle Sonic's gonna look after you. Then I'll be back here in no time, OK?" he said comfortingly.  
"And Way Way too?" Sandy said amongst her tears.  
"Yes, Ray Ray too." Tails replied.

He kissed Sandy on the forehead.

Shadow went to Amy and kissed her forehead too.

"I'll be back soon. I promise." he said.

Amy nodded.

Knuckles jumped into the back seat of the plane.

"Come on you guys! We've got to get to the Master Emerald now!" he said impatiently.  
"OK OK!" Tails said and jumped into the pilot seat.

Shadow let go of Amy's hand and leapt onto the top of the plane's wings.

As the engine whirred and the propeller span, Sonic Amy and Sandy waved goodbye. They watched as the plane left the ground and sped off into the air.

"Good luck you guys." Sonic thought. "I feel guilty for leaving you like this but…well let's say that place leaves a mark on you."


	15. The power of hypnosis

**I've put up links to the pics I drew in my profile so check them out!  
Again, thanks for all your nice reviews! And thanks to Kelly who drew me a piece of fan art to go with the story! I've never had tht before lol  
Enjoy the chapter!**

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**Chapter 15**

The Tornado flew at top speed toward Eggman's base. Shadow had his wrist communicator open and was looking at the location of Ray's watch.

"Hold on Ray…" he thought.

"There it is you guys!" Tails called out amongst the rushing of the wind.

Shadow and Knuckles looked up and there they could see Eggman's looming mansion. Huge storm clouds were building up around them and the plane began to swerve as the wind grew stronger.

"The weather's beginning to play up! I'll try and pull in as far as I can but it won't be easy!" Tails shouted.  
"Just try your best Tails!" Shadow answered back.

As the plane drew in closer to the building, robots began to fire at them. Shadow ducked, a laser just missing the top of his head. Tails fired back, with the built in machine gun on the front of the plane and continued to pull in closer.

But then an unseen laser hit the Tornado on the propeller. Tails blinked and yelped as he saw the front of his plane go up in smoke. The plane began to go out of control, swerving to the left sharply.

Shadow and Knuckles clung on for dear life.

"Hold on you guys! We're gonna crash!" Tails yelled and swerved the plane toward the wiring fencing, surrounding the base.

Several robots jumped or ran out of the way as they saw the plane coming toward them. The Tornado hit the ground, smashing into the fencing.

Dust and dirt arose as the plane crashed.

…

"Sir, there is an aircraft which has crashed in the facility. What shall we do?" said one of Eggman's human slaves.

"Show me on camera" the Supreme Ruler ordered.

One of the remaining cameras, which had not been shot, revealed the wreck. It was smoking and it appeared to have no life on board.

"Order the guard robots out there to investigate." Eggman said.

…

The robots began to edge in closer to the craft, holding their guns out at it.

Suddenly Shadow jumped out of the wreckage. He was holding his gun and shot at the robots surrounding him. One by one they jerked and died as they took a hit.

Tails and Knuckles followed him and shook off the dirt from their chests.

"Is everyone alright?" Shadow asked.  
"Just fine…" knuckles said.

Tails nodded.

Shadow looked at his watch again.

"OK we've got to get inside. I'll lead the way." Shadow said and ran toward the main entrance door, which had been left wide open.

…

"They still have the Tornado?" Eggman exclaimed.

"He's destroyed the robots sir. What shall we do?" asked the same human slave.

Eggman grinned.

"Nothing. Let them come. Our newest member will sort them out…"

He laughed loudly.

…

Shadow Knuckles and Tails ran through the base, following the guidance of Shadow's watch. Many robots tried to stop them but they weren't a match for Shadow and his gun. Soon no more robots came and the hallways became empty.

The three stopped to verify their location. Knuckles was beginning to get impatient.

"We've been running for ages! I have to find the Master Emerald!" he moaned.  
"Knuckles, we have Ray to find too you know! Just be patient and you'll get your emerald." Shadow replied in annoyance.

Knuckles folded his arms. Tails looked over Shadow's shoulder, at his watch.

"Hey…it says that Ray's in that power room. The one that I said looked like a corridor." He said.

"You see Knuckles? We can kill two birds with one stone. Now let's go. It isn't far from here. Just down some stairs…" Shadow said.

The stairs Shadow referred to turned out to be more than just "some". 200 to be precise.

After what seemed a life time, the three friends finally reached the basement. They stopped and bent over, gasping for breath.

Tails wiped his forehead.

"That's my exercise done for today!" he wheezed.

Shadow stood upright and looked at his watch.

"He's just ahead of us, along with the emeralds." He said.  
"All right!" Knuckles yelled and ran ahead.

"Knuckles! Wait up!" Tails yelled and ran after him.

Shadow rolled his eyes and hurried after them.

They passed a grill lying on the floor, taken from the air duct above them. Shadow blinked as he passed it.

It wasn't long before the friends reached the large "RESTRICTED" door. They noticed the card swiper blown to bits and as they stepped forward the door opened.

"This must be how Ray was able to get in." Tails said quietly and followed Shadow and Knuckles inside.

Sure enough, the emeralds sat in front of them, each glowing as energy was being slowly drained from it. The Master Emerald sat in the middle of the chaos emeralds.

"It looks like each one of the emeralds controls one part of the building." Tails said, examining the strange tube like things attached to the emeralds.

Just then they heard footsteps. They gasped and span around. A figure could be seen in the shadows. Shadow held aloft his gun and clenched his teeth. Knuckles and Tails stanced.

"Who's there?" Shadow yelled out into the darkness.

The figure stepped forward into the light. Everyone blinked as they saw that it was Ray. He had dark rings around the bottom of his eyes and his eye lids were half closed.

"Ray!" Shadow cried and ran to him.

The others looked on as Shadow ran to his son. Shadow stood in front of Ray.

"I'm glad to see that you're not dead but it looks like Eggman tried to make you talk. Are you OK?" Shadow asked.

Ray made no reply and just stared at Shadow. Shadow blinked.

"Ray?"

He clutched Ray by the shoulders and shook him.

"What's he done to you?" Shadow cried.

"…Stay away from the emeralds…" Ray answered blankly.

Shadow blinked and Ray suddenly threw a punch to Shadow's face. Shadow wasforced backward and rolled along the floor.

"Shadow!" Tails called.

Just then an evil laughter came over the loud speakers. It was Eggman.

"Good to see you lot again! It certainly has been a while."

Shadow pulled himself up to his feet and wiped away the blood from his lip.

"What have you done to him Eggman?" he yelled.

"I just simply put him in his place." came Eggman's reply over the speakers. "No one can resist the power of hypnosis. How else do you think I get my slaves? He obeys me now."

Shadow looked at his son in pity.

"Kill him!" Eggman yelled.

Ray suddenly leapt in the air and gathered up chaos spears in his hands. Emotionless, he threw the spears toward Shadow.

Shadow blinked in surprise and ran, avoiding the shots.

"Tails! Knuckles! Sort out the emeralds. Maybe one of them controls the thing that's controlling Ray!" Shadow yelled out, running away from the blasts.


	16. The battle of Father and Son

**I'm glad u guys like my pics! I'll draw some more l8er!  
Enjoy this next chapter  
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**Chapter 16**

Tails and Knuckles ran behind the emeralds, just avoiding an explosion from a chaos spear. They became out of view of Eggman's camera.

"Well Knuckles? You're the emerald expect here! What do we do?" Tails asked rather frantically.

Knuckles crawled under the various energy sucking wires and made it to the Master Emerald. Tails stayed where he was, waiting for an answer.

"I can't believe that mad man would use the Master Emerald in this way!" Knuckles said, more to himself than to Tails.

"Knuckles!" Tails yelled over the noise of explosions.  
"Sorry! Well, as you said before, it may be that each emerald controls one part of the building. We have to disconnect these wires somehow."

…

Meanwhile, Ray was still going for Shadow's throat. He threw a final chaos spear, which hit the wall just above Shadow's head. As the wall exploded, Ray landed and ran toward Shadow at top speed.

Shadow blinked ad he saw Ray lift his wrist, getting ready to deliver a punch. Luckily, Shadow reacted quickly and lifted up his arm to shield himself from the blow. Shadow winced as the force of the punch went through his arm.

Ray didn't react and instead jump and swung his leg toward Shadow's head. Shadow yelled out and Ray's foot hit the back of his head. He fell forward onto his front but quickly pushed himself up again, flipping so that he landed on his feet facing Ray.

Shadow put his hand to his head and felt a small wound. He looked at his hand and saw blood. Just then he looked up and saw that Ray was running toward him again. Shadow snarled and dodged as Ray began to throw an array of punches and kicks.

…

"How do you think we'll know which emerald controls what?" Knuckles asked.  
"To be honest, I don't now. I guess we'll have to pick at random." Tails answered.

Knuckles chose a large wire, which was attached to the Master Emerald.

"I have to free the Master Emerald first." Knuckles said.  
…

Shadow continued to dodge as fast as he could but was beginning to get tired and Ray's kick on his head was making him dizzy. Without feeling it, the two hedgehogs were moving along the ground as the fought. The ended up near a wall, a few feet away from the emeralds.

"Ray…please… try and recognise me…" Shadow wheezed, continuing to dodge Ray's moves.

But it was no good.

Emotionless, Ray threw a fast punch to Shadow's eye. Shadow was thrown to the side and hit the wall. As he fell to the ground, Shadow's vision began to darken. His eyelids fluttered as he was beginning to loose consciousness.

…

"Go for it Knuckles! Shadow's in trouble!" Tails yelled, seeing Shadow hit the wall.

Knuckles punched down on the wire, which lay across the floor. Small sparks flew as the impact of Knuckles' fist crushed the wire and broke it.

The lights in the room began to flicker. Ray jumped and blinked, coming out of his trance. He looked around.

"What the…Where am I?" he said.

…

Around the base all power began to die. The human slaves came out of their trance too. They looked around, trying to remember what had happened to them.

The slaves who were monitoring the cameras, with Eggman, blinked and had the same reaction.

"What the!" Eggman yelled as he saw what was going on.

All lights in the base flickered out, the robots sparked and died and eventually all power in the base disappeared.

The humans simply ran. They yelled as the adrenaline rushed through their bodies and escaped from the base.

Eggman frantically tried to regain control but it was no use. He snarled.

"Damn those fools! I'll get them for this!" he yelled.

But then he grinned.

"Wait…I still have my emergency weapon…the Egg-Destroyer 3000! Yes, I'll use the back up power and, instead of using it for the base, I'll transfer it to my weapon!"

His eyes became bloodshot as his power crazed mind began to whir madly. He laughed aloud.

…

"Nice one Knuckles! It looks like the Master emerald was holding all the emeralds power in place." Tails said.

"Well that is what it's meant to do!" Knuckles answered.

In the dim light, Ray saw Shadow half unconscious on the floor, blood around his mouth. He gasped and ran to his father.

"Shadow!" he yelled.

Shadow slowly lifted his head, still rather dizzy and just managed to see Ray kneeling over him.

"Are you…you?" Shadow asked smiling a little.  
"I think so…" Ray replied. "What happened here?"  
"Eggman…he had you…under his control. Don't worry though…it's not your fault."

Ray put his arms around Shadow and pulled him up so that they faced each other.

"I'm sorry Dad…" he said and hugged his father.

Shadow hugged back. He put his weight on Ray's Shadow and could feel himself falling into unconsciousness. He let his eyes close and his body flop.

Ray blinked, realising that Shadow had blanked out.

"Dad don't! Wake up!" he yelled but it was no good.

Tails and Knuckles ran over and Knuckles lifted Shadow up, supporting his weight on his shoulders.

"I think we better get out of here, pronto." Tails said.


	17. A small black dot getting larger

**Here's the next chapter for u all!**

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**Chapter 17**

Shadow slowly opened his eyes and could just make out Ray looking over him. At first he thought that he was back at the base but realised that his surroundings were different.

"Mum! Uncle Sonic! He's awake!" Ray yelled.

Shadow blinked, his vision starting to focus properly. He soon remembered his pains and groaned in pain. He put his hand to his head and found that his wound had been bandaged. He also saw that his arm had a bruise on, where it had taken Ray's punch.

"How are you feeling?" Ray asked.  
"…you have no idea…" Shadow answered.

Just then Sonic and Amy came through from outside.

"Morning!" Sonic said. "Glad to see you're finally awake."  
"Yes. If it weren't for you I'd never see Ray again. I was so glad to see Knuckles and Tails bring the both of you back." Amy said.

"How long ago was that?" Shadow asked trying to remember.  
"Late last night." Ray answered. "You conked out just before we left the base. Knuckles had to carry you, along with the Master Emerald. He didn't wanna leave without it."

Shadow sighed.

"There goes my dignity…" he said.  
"You just rest as long as you need to Shadow." Amy said.  
"Yeah you sure as hell look like you need it!" Sonic said laughing.

Ray looked down a little, guilty about his actions. Shadow laughed sarcastically at Sonic.

"Yeah? You wanna end up this way too?" he asked.

"No thanks I'm good!" Sonic said, backing off a little.

"Good, cause you will be if you don't shush!"  
…

A little later Tails and Knuckles heard that Shadow had woken up and went to see how he was. Ray stayed by his father's side.

After Tails and knuckles had left, Ray started to talk about what had happened.  
He sat on the end of the sofa, which  
"I'm really sorry about this Dad." He said, looking down. "I could've killed you if I'd carried on the way I did."

Shadow sat up.

"There's no need for that, Ray. Eggman had you hypnotised. You didn't know what you were doing."

"But look at what I did to you." Ray looked up, little tears beginning to sparkle in his eyes. "It was still my fists that made your bruises…"

Ray looked away, so that Shadow couldn't se him cry. Shadow carefully moved closer to Ray.

"It was your fists that did this to me. But Eggman was controlling them." He said, putting his hand on Ray's back.

Ray looked around a little and wiped away his tears.

"Eggman's screwed up in the head. He can't fight for himself so he controls people to do it for him. It isn't your fault Ray and don't let him think it is either. Besides, when you fight for yourself you show a much greater power; a power from within." Shadow said assuringly.

Ray blinked and nodded. He turned back around and gave Shadow a hug.

"Thanks." Ray said.

…

Without slaves to do his bidding, Eggman was working hard at his new plan. He was in the power room.

"My new weapon will stop those annoying rodents…" Eggman said aloud to himself.He pulled out the wires from the emeralds.

"The Master Emerald may be gone but I still have the chaos emeralds!" he said.

He quickly gathered the emeralds and ran up various flights of stairs. He finally reached the roof of his base. There stood a humongous and intimidating robot. It was made entirely out of metal and shone in the mid afternoon sun. It's body had been painted black.

Eggman climbed up into the robot's head, where there was a control panel. There were 7 slots in the panel, obviously built for the chaos emeralds. He flicked various switches and the robots eyes glowed a dark red. Eggman laughed madly.

"Now for your power boost!" he yelled and quickly placed the emeralds into the slots.

The robot whirled and multi coloured sparks began to fly around it. The Egg-Destroyer 3000 lifted up its arms, taking in this new power.

"Now! Let us go and get rid of those freedom fighters for good!" Eggman yelled.

The Egg-Destroyer 3000 responded to Eggman's command and began to fire up powerful jet engines, located on its back. It shot into the air like a rocket and flew through the sky with such speed that it broke the evening clouds apart.

…

A few hours passed and the time was now 5:32pm. Ray was sitting on the highest branch of the tallest tree, out in the forest. The sun was beginning to set and the sky was turning a deep orange. Ray sighed as he gazed into the sunset.

"Mind if I join you?" came a voice from behind him.

Ray jumped, nearly falling out of three. He turned and saw that is was Sonic.

"Yeah sure" Ray said, catching his breath.  
"Sorry I made you jump. What's up?" Sonic said.

Ray looked back at the sky.

"Nothing. Just came here to see the sunset." He said.  
"I know when something's up!" Sonic said. "What's the matter?"

Ray sighed, knowing that Sonic wouldn't stop persisting.

"I was just thinking…" Ray said, his words fading out.

Sonic blinked and waited for Ray's answer. Ray looked back at Sonic.

"What was life like before all this, Uncle Sonic?" Ray asked. "Were you and my Dad friends?"

"Well…to start with no. But things happened and he decided to join our side." Sonic replied.  
"Things?"  
"You've heard of the ARK right?"  
"Yeah. It's where my Mum and Dad first met."  
"Well it nearly collided with the Earth but Shadow and I managed to stop it. He almost fell to his death but I saved him."

Sonic looked at the sky.

"You aren't the only one with a confusing past Ray. Shadow's been through a lot. He has a lot of painful memories, some of which may not even be real. But he decided a long time ago to put that behind him and just enjoy what he had."

Ray looked down.

Just then Sonic blinked as he saw something flying toward them. A small black dot getting larger. A noise of loud jet engines whirring became louder and louder. As the craft came closer, Sonic realised that it was some kind of robot and it was headingdirectly toward the tree he and Ray were sitting on.

"Ray! Jump now!" he yelled.

Ray gasped and looked suddenly, seeing the robot hurtling toward them. The two hedgehogs jumped from the tree just in time. As they landed on the ground, the robots shot through the tree, causing it to smash to pieces.


	18. 30 minutes

**I've found a cover for this story that I'd drawn a while ago. I'll scan it once I've touched it up a bit!  
Ta again for your lovely reviews! **

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**Chapter 18**

Shadow was still lying on Amy's sofa. He'd fallen asleep a few hours ago. But then he was awoken with a start by the sound of a crash. He sat up quickly, ignoring the pains from his bruises.

"What the-?" he said and got up from the sofa.

He ran outside and found Amy.

"What was that noise?" Shadow asked her.  
"I don't know but it sounded like it came from outside and that's where Ray is!" she answered, beginning to become emotional again.

Tails and Knuckles ran to them.

"Guys! Did you hear that?" Tails yelped.  
"What do you think? It was loud enough." Shadow said.

"Sonic's out there too. He went to talk to Ray!" Knuckles said.  
"Let's go investigate." Shadow said, removing the bandage from around his head.

…

Ray shook the dirt from his head, after having just landed on the ground. He could hear the loud sound of engines above his head.

"Uncle Sonic? Are you OK?" Ray called out.  
"I'm alright!" Sonic yelled back from amidst the dust in the air.

The dirt and dust cloud began to settle and Ray could now make out Sonic lying a few feet away. Sonic stood up and looked around him. His vision went straight to the robot, hovering above him and Ray.

He gasped as he recognised its design.

"The Egg-Destroyer 3000…Eggman's Ultimate Weapon!" he said quietly and nervously, under his breath.

Just then, a voice was projected from the robot. It was Eggman's.

"There you are Sonic! And little Ray too." He said, laughing loudly.

None of the hedgehogs replied. Suddenly a voice yelled out.

"What the heck is this!" it cried.

It was Knuckles. Sonic and Ray blinked and turned to see Tails Knuckles and Shadow standing there, having just come out from underground. They ran to Sonic and Ray.

"You guys OK?" Shadow asked.  
"Yeah don't worry. We're fine." Sonic replied. "But we won't be for much longer if we aren't careful!"

Just then the Egg-Destroyer 3000 transformed its arm into a large machine gun. Eggman's demonic laughter could be heard as the gun was fired at the Freedom Fighters.

"RUN!" Sonic yelled.

Immediately, the group leapt out of the way, in various directions. The bullets hit the ground, narrowly avoided by the gang.

Shadow landed just by Ray and they both lay down to avoid being caught by a stray bullet. Shadow held down Ray's body with his hand, not violently but protectively.

The others stayed down too.

"Man this looks pretty bad!" Sonic said, who'd landed just by Knuckles.

Knuckles looked up briefly and gasped as he saw the glowing colours of the chaos emeralds from the Egg-Destroyer 3000's head.

"It has the chaos emeralds!" Knuckles yelled.

Everyone blinked.

"What? Why didn't you bring them back with the Master Emerald?" Shadow yelled.  
"I thought that they'd eventually split up, without the Master Emerald maintaining their power!" Knuckles answered back.

"Come on you cowards!" Eggman yelled again. "Come out and fight!"

Ray couldn't take waiting around anymore. He leapt up from the ground, pushing Shadow's hand out of the way, and charged at the robot. He clenched his teeth.

"Ray!" Shadow yelled after him.  
"No wait!" Sonic called eagerly.

But Ray didn't stop. He leapt at the robot, firing up a chaos spear attack in his unclenched hand.

He yelled aloud and fired the onslaught of chaos spears and the robots head. As the spears hit the Egg-Destroyer 3000, smoke arose. Ray landed on the ground and caught his breath. But the smoke simple faded and there wasn't even a scratch on the Egg-Destroyer 3000's body.

Ray froze with shock as the robot lifted up its arm. Before anyone could do anything, the Egg-Destroyer 3000 swung its arm at Ray's side and a horrible crunch like sound could be heard. Ray yelled aloud in pain and was flung into a large tree.

Shadow ran to him.

"Ray!" he called as he reached his son.

Ray was still conscious but had a nasty gash on the top of his head.

"I'm ok…" he said.

"What are you playing at Ray?" Sonic yelled. "This thing is far more dangerous than you know!"

"You've obviously seen this thing before Sonic. Why don't you stop shouting at us and explain what it is exactly and how we can beat it!" Shadow yelled back.

Just then Eggman's laughter rose up again and the robot began to fire again.  
Everyone ducked back down beneath the trees.

"I will but we'll have to get to a safer place first!" Sonic yelled out.

"This is getting boring! You fools better come out here now and face your fate! Or else I'll force you out!" Eggman shouted over the loudspeakers.

"Come with me back underground. We'll hide in the shelter until this thing calms down a little." Sonic said, ignoring Eggman's demands.

"But Sonic-" Tails started.  
"He can go wreck the ruins first. That'll get his anger out. Now come on!"

Sonic then bravely stepped out toward the Egg-Destroyer 3000, which had now stopped it's fire.

"Eggman! We'll fight you but you gotta let us prepare for a bit first!" he yelled out.  
"Who do you think I am hedgehog?" Came Eggman's reply.  
"You want a fair fight, don't you Doctor?" Shadow said, stepping out beside Sonic. "You should be the bigger man here and give us some time. You'll beat us anyway so you may as well."

Eggman pondered on this.

"Very well! You fools may have 30 minutes to prepare yourselves. At least then you'll feel a little better about yourselves when you die!" he yelled.

The boosters on the Egg-Destoryer's back began to fire up and Eggman zoomed off into the sky. Everyone, especially Tails (who always hated confrontations) sighed a deep sigh of relief.

"OK that gives you 30 minutes to explain this Sonic." Knuckles said.  
"Alright already! Let's go to the shelter first. We can warn the others to stay there too, while we're there. We can't let them get hurt."

With that, Sonic turned around and walked back toward the underground base, the others following shortly after.


	19. Practice makes perfect

**Here's the next chapter u guys! My GCSE exams start today so i may not be updating as much as before but that doesn't mean I'll stop writing completely! Hell no! lol Just be patient with me and I'll deliver **

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**Chapter 19**

**_28 minutes left_**

The gang were sitting in the shelter, along with Amy and the other residents of the Underground Resistance. Ray had horrible pains in his side and bruising was beginning to appear. He lay on his back with his head on Amy's knees. She held an ice cold cloth to her son's injury.

Everyone was gathered around in a circle, waiting for Sonic to explain himself.

"Come on then Sonic." Shadow said. "Make it quick."  
"Alright…I guess there was a little advantage to me being locked up." Sonic began. "I managed to learn about Eggman's "Emergency Weapon". He called it the Egg-Destroyer 3000."

Everyone blinked.

"One of the time's I tried to escape I got lost and found myself in Eggman's surveillance room. There was where I found the plans for this robot. Its controlling system is in the head. There's an inbuilt compartment for the chaos emeralds built in there. From this compartment, the power of the emeralds can be absorbed and maintained." Sonic continued.

"Was there anything else you found out about it?" Tails asked.

"Well I remember glancing at something else about the emeralds, before being caught. Once the robot has completely absorbed the power of the emeralds, it can "spit them out" in a way. Like Chaos did all of those years back."

"They'll be left as powerless rocks…then there's nothing we can do to stop it!" Knuckles said hopelessly.

"Not quite." Tails said. "We could still use the emeralds against Eggman. Remember when we fought Chaos? He used the emerald's power but then Sonic could transform into Super Sonic-"

Shadow and Ray looked a little confused, as they'd never been around when the battle against Chaos was fought.

"Chaos?" Shadow asked.  
"Super Sonic…?" Ray said quietly.

Tails sighed.

"It's a long story…" he said  
"Super Sonic is like a more powerful version of me." Sonic explained. "Shadow can do it too."  
"Yes. The power of the emeralds goes into our bodies and we transform into a more powerful being." Shadow said to his son.

"That's what we'll do then! It's the only way." Tails said.  
"But we'll have to wait until all of the chaos emerald's energy is absorbed." Shadow said.  
"He's right. Who knows what damage that thing could do in the meantime? It already pounded Ray." said Sonic.

"We'll have to take that chance" Tails answered. "Besides, maybe 30 minutes is enough time it takes for the emerald's power to take in."

…

**_15 minutes remaining _**

Tails decided to stay in the shelter, as he knew he wasn't a fighter and would just get in the way. Knuckles and Sonic stepped up the ladder and out of the shelter. Shadow waited behind.

"Please be careful Shadow!" Amy pleaded worryingly.  
"I will Amy. Don't worry." Shadow replied.

Ray reached out a hand to his father's.

"Can you… help me up?" he said, a little breathlessly.  
"Are you sure you want to fight? The bruise looks painful."  
"It is but I wanna help. I have to! That doctor's put us in misery for long enough."

Shadow smiled, admiring Ray's attitude. He took Ray's hand and pulled him up. Ray winced a little but tried his best to hide the pain.

The two hedgehogs climbed up the ladder and out onto the seemingly abandoned terrain. Shadow put his arm around Ray to give support but Ray shook him off.

"I'm fine Dad, really I am!" Ray said.  
"If you're sure…" Shadow said and walked a little ahead.

Ray could feel that his breathing was rusty and his chest hurt a little but he wanted to help so badly that he was willing to fight regardless of his pain. Ray rubbed his chest a little before catching up with Shadow. They met up with Sonic and Knuckles.

"Ok seeing as we have some time to kill, we may as well use it wisely." Sonic whispered. "As soon as we see the emeralds we have to try and collect them as fast as we can! Then we can meet up somewhere out of sight from that Egg Head."

"He'll need to be distracted if we're gonna hide." Knuckles pointed out.  
"We'll see when the time comes." Shadow replied. "It's more interesting that way!"

…

**_2 minutes remaining_**

Sonic Knuckles Ray and Shadow left the Underground Resistance and were walking through the forest, toward the ruins of Station Square. Ray had fallen behind a little, as he was trying to control his breathing a little better. Just then he tripped a little on something, almost falling over. He looked and saw what appeared to be a black rock. He picked it up and examined it.

Shadow stopped and looked behind him.

"Ray?" he called.  
"I've found something!" Ray answered.

Shadow began to walk toward Ray when, all of a sudden a giant robotic foot stomped down in the way of Shadow's path. Shadow jumped and fell backward. Sonic and Knuckles gasped. Ray fell back and landed on his bruise, causing him to wheeze painfully.

A malicious laugh echoed in the air around them.

"I'm glad I found you rodents! I was getting awfully bored!" Eggman yelled.

Ray began to feel a little dizzy with the pain in his side. He shook his head, trying to forget it. He looked at the empty gem in his hand.

"This must be one of those chaos emeralds…" he thought.

…

Knuckles and Sonic ran to Shadow. Sonic helped him up.

"Shadow, Ray has one of the emeralds!" Knuckles whispered sharply. "Sonic and I will distract Eggman. You see if Ray's OK and find the other emeralds."

"Give us some kind of signal when you find them too." Sonic added.

Shadow nodded and quickly jumped over the large foot. Sonic and Knuckles began their distractions.

"Yo Eggman! I've been practicing since you last saw me!" Sonic yelled out. "Bet your crappy laser gun can't hit me!"

Eggman snarled and immediately, the robot began firing at Sonic. Knuckles leapt out of the way.

It became obvious that Sonic_ had_ practiced on regaining his running ability. He twirled and jumped, avoiding the fire with ease. He was just like his old self again.


	20. No hope left

**Here's the next chapter! 3 of my exams r outta of the way now then I have next week off hurrah! ahem yeh so anyways enjoy the chapter!**

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**Chapter 20** (wow! never thought i'd get this far!)

Ray looked up as he heard Shadow landing just in front of him.

"Are you alright?" Shadow called.

Ray nodded and rubbed his side.

"Just a little wheezy. But I'm fine." He replied.

He stood up a little shakily.

"I don't know if you're fit for this, ray…" Shadow said warily. "I hear a nasty sound when that thing hit you-"  
"Dad I'm fine! Please just let me help!" Ray interrupted.

Shadow paused. He admired Ray's will to help but was concerned for his health.  
He shook his head.

"We don't have time for this now. You can help but just be careful alright?" Shadow said.

Ray nodded.

Shadow took the dark emerald from Ray's hand and examined it.

"Alright. Now let's split up. We have to find more of these stones OK?"  
"You mean the chaos emeralds right?"  
"Yes. Now go. Sonic and Knuckles are stalling the Doctor but they won't be able to do it forever."

Ray and Shadow split up to different ends of the forest.

…

"You ignorant pests! You really think the two of you can defeat me?" Eggman yelled.

The Egg-Destroyer 3000 continued firing bullets at Sonic, who dodged them all thanks to his rediscovered speed. Knuckles shielded his face from the various bullets pinging around him.

But then the gun ran out of ammo.

"Argh!" Eggman yelled in frustration. "Damn you hedgehog! You may have gotten your running ability back but you're still no match for the power of the chaos emeralds!"

The Egg-3000 lifted up its fist and multi coloured sparks began to fly from it.

Knuckles ran out and stood just behind Sonic.

With immense speed the Egg-3000 swung its arm toward Sonic, just like it had done to Ray.

Without thinking, Knuckles leapt at Sonic and shoved him out of the arms path. He yelled aloud as he took the blow. Sonic didn't quite know what was happening and gasped as he was suddenly pushed to the ground. Knuckles was flung through the trees and hit his back against a cliff wall. The impact forced him unconscious and his body flopped to the ground. He laid there, blood trickling from his mouth.

Sonic's jaw dropped and stared in shock.

"Knuckles!" He yelled.

…

Ray was steadily searching through the trees for any more emeralds. He could still hear the commotion from the fight, just a few metres away but was forced to ignore it and stay hidden.

He kept hold managed to find two more emeralds, hidden beneath the grass.

"Awesome!" he thought.

Just then, he heard Knuckles' scream and quickly looked up to see him being flung toward the cliff wall. He too stared, frozen in shock for a few minutes.

Pain began to return to his side and he suddenly got the urge to cough. He dropped the emeralds and put his hands to his mouth to try and silence his coughing fit. Once he'd stopped he could taste blood there. He looked at his hands and, sure enough his gloves were blood stained.

Ray blinked and another coughing fit began to come around. He felt his knees and hands hit the earth and he coughed and spluttered almost uncontrollably. His eyes began to water from the strain. He spat blood from his mouth.

"What's wrong with me?" he cried in his head.

…

Shadow was wondering through the trees. He kept his eyes locked on the ground. He'd managed to find four more of the emeralds. They were mainly together as the emeralds would have fallen from the robot all at once.

Cradling the four gems in his arm, Shadow crept among the plant life. He also looked up just in time to see Knuckles being hit by the Egg-Destroyer 3000 and winced as he heard the sound of impact with the wall.

"Don't worry Knuckles…we'll be alright soon." He thought.

Then he could hear something from further away. He frowned as he tried to figure out what it was.

…

The Egg-Destroyer 3000 turned around. Eggman put his hand to his ear and sneered. He could hear Ray coughing.

"Aaaaaah so that's where your other friends are at huh?" he said.

Sonic blinked and quickly jumped up.

"Your fight's with me Eggman!" he shouted.  
"This fight's over!" Eggman yelled.

The Egg-Destroyer 3000 suddenly grabbed Sonic and had a tight hold of him in its hand. Sonic yelped and struggled, gritting his teeth as he was lifted high up in the air. The Egg-Destroyer 3000 squeezed hard and Sonic screamed in pain. He could feel his ribs crushing inside him.

…

Shadow began to walk toward where the noise was coming from. As he got closer, he could determine that it was coughing.

"Aaaaaah so that's where your other friends are at huh?" Eggman's voice boomed.

Shadow gasped.

"Ray!" he whispered.

The coughing faded and eventually stopped. Shadow ran as quick as he could toward where he was walking. He hopped over a dead tree and found him.

Ray was lying unconscious on the ground, his face lying in a small pool of blood. Two chaos emeralds lay beside him.

Shadow gasped and put his emeralds by the two that Ray had found. He knelt by his son's head and began to rub his back. He figured out that the crushing punch from the Egg-Destroyer 3000 must have cause an internal bleed in his chest.

"Ray!" he called frantically. "Wake up Ray!"

Ray was still alive but Shadow knew that if he didn't wake up he could choke on his own blood.

Then Shadow heard Sonic's scream and looked up to see him having the air squeezed out of his body.

He saw Sonic's body flop and knew he'd blacked out, due to lack of oxygen. Then the huge robot turned to Shadow's direction.

"Now…where are you Shadow!" Eggman laughed insanely.

Now it seemed, to Shadow, that there was no hope left.


	21. A shining new light

**I took a day off school today, seeing as I had no exams, and used some of the time writing a nice long chapter for u all to enjoy! **

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**Chapter 21**

Knuckles was slowly coming round. He blinked as his vision began to focus. He groaned and could taste the blood in his mouth.

"Aaaaw man…" he said to himself, slowly pushing himself up.

There was a slight pain in his back and around his side. He looked there and saw that quite a large bruise, similar to Ray's, beginning to show. As he felt the pain he remembered what happened.

"Damn you Eggman!" he cursed.

He put his hand on the cliff wall for support and began to lift himself up to his feet. Just then he felt something lodged in the cliff. Knuckles blinked and turned his head to see what the thing was.

He gasped as he saw that it was the last abandoned chaos emerald.

"An emerald!" he thought. "I have to get this to Shadow…"

He took a hold of the gem and pulled. His cliff was no match for Knuckles' strength and bits of the wall, around the emerald, began to chip away. Eventually, the emerald was pulled free.

"Alright!" Knuckles whispered to himself.

He turned to see if he could spot Shadow or Ray but what he did see gave him a shock.

He saw the Egg-Destroyer 3000 just a few feet away. It had Sonic in its grasp but Knuckles could see that Sonic was unconscious.

"Where are you Shadow! Come out come out wherever you are!" Eggman was yelling through the loudspeakers, in an insane tone of voice.

…

Shadow lay helplessly, unable to move without Ray. He frantically carried on trying to wake up his son.

"Come on Ray! Wake up for me!" he said in Ray's ear.

He rubbed Ray's back quicker to try and bring out any remaining blood. Just then, some of the trees that were sheltering the two hedgehogs broke apart. Shadow quickly looked up and saw Eggman with his humongous machine standing there. The Egg-Destroyer 3000 was holding back the trees with its free hand.

"There you are!" Eggman yelled in a dark tone.

He laughed maliciously.

Shadow snarled, trying to keep on a brave face.

"Stay back Eggman!" he yelled a little shakily.  
"What can you do Shadow? You're left all alone now! There's nothing to stand in my way of killing both you and your weakling of a son right here, right now!" came Eggman's sneer of a reply.

"Oh yeah!" came a voice from the woods.

Shadow blinked as he saw Knuckles jump out from the trees. He threw an almighty punch down on the Egg-Destoryer 3000's foot, yelling to get his anger out of his system. The punch was surprisingly powerful and dented the robot's foot quite a way.

The robot staggered back a little, obviously feeling the damage.

"GAAAAH! Fool! How dare you!" Eggman yelled.

Just then Ray suddenly began to cough again. Shadow blinked and began to rub Ray's back.

"Ray can you hear me?" Shadow said.

Ray gagged and coughed up a small amount of blood. Shadow lifted him up a bit and saw him nodding slowly. An urge to cough in Ray's chest had woken him up.

Shadow sighed.

Knuckles stood just in front of them, breathing heavily. He began to wave the pain from his hand.

"That armour's strong…" he said.  
"Thanks Knuckles. Are you alright?" Shadow said.  
"Apart from the pain in my hand I'm fine!" Knuckles replied.

He turned to Shadow and held out the emerald.

"By the way, look what I found."

Shadow took the empty emerald.

"The seventh emerald!" he said faintly.

Just then the Egg-Destroyer 3000 began to loosen its grip on Sonic. He was dangerously high up and already had injuries to his chest so a fall would most likely kill him.

Shadow blinked.

"Wait here!" he said and quickly jumped up. He threw the emerald to Knuckles and ran. Sonic began to fall toward the ground head first.

Eggman laughed again.

"I guess Sonic will be the first to go!" he screamed madly.

As Sonic was falling, Shadow zoomed out of the trees and jumped high in the air.

"What!" Eggman yelled as he saw Shadow soar.

Shadow grabbed Sonic's body and landed safely on the ground.

"No one's going anywhere Eggman!" Shadow yelled and ran back into the trees, carrying Sonic in his arms.

Eggman's yells of frustration could be heard as Shadow reached Ray and Knuckles.

"Follow me. We'll have to sort ourselves out a bit first before we can get rid of him." Shadow whispered.

He ran, with Sonic, deeper into the forest. Knuckles quickly picked up the rest o fthe emeralds and, along with Ray, hastily followed.

They disappeared from Eggman's sight, moving further and further into the forest. Eventually, they reached a small yet secret clearing.

Shadow lay Sonic on the ground whilst Ray and Knuckles caught up. Knuckles put the emeralds on the ground, just behind Shadow.

"Sonic can you hear me?" Shadow called.

Shadow noticed terrible bruising around Sonic's middle. He also had blood around his mouth. He groaned as he was beginning to come round. His eyes opened slowly and Shadow could see that they were bloodshot. Sonic took hold of Shadow's shoulder and used it to push himself upright.

But as he did so he yelped harshly in pain and grabbed his middle. However he ignored this pain and didn't lie down again.

"What…What happened?" Sonic said quietly and sounding quite dazed.

"That robot thing almost crushed you to death." Shadow answered.  
"Then he dropped you. But Shadow saved you." Knuckles said.

Sonic's eyelids fluttered as he tried to figure out where he was. Ray sat down, slowly so that he didn't have another coughing urge.

"What are we gonna do now? We have the emeralds but we can't fight like this!" he moaned.  
"Yes I know…" Shadow said.

He sighed and looked at the emeralds behind him.

"You're…the only one…" Sonic spoke quietly.

Shadow turned around.

"I can't…do it Shadow…and…even if Ray could…he's-"  
"in the same boat as you." Shadow finished.

Sonic nodded.

"It's…up to you…" he said.

Shadow looked a little perplexed. Last time he'd used the emeralds he'd lost all power and nearly died.

"But…I can't do this alone!" Shadow insisted. "I only just made it last time. I don't know why I lost my powers back then but…what if it happens again? None of you would be able to help."

"It won't…" Sonic answered. "All of…the power will…be used by…you. I'd already…used the emeralds before…we met-"

"Back when we were fighting Chaos." Knuckles said. "He used the emeralds then in pretty much the same way as you'd do now."

"Right…" Sonic said. "I was more…used to their powers…so I had no problems…"

Shadow began to understand.

"So know I'm more used to their powers, I should be able to withstand and control them!" he said.

Just then the ground began to shake slightly and explosions could be heard from the distance.

"I'll find you tyrants! You can't hide from me forever!" Eggman yelled from afar.

The Egg-Destroyer 3000 was destroying all that lay before it, in order to help Eggman find Shadow and the others quicker.

"He's getting closer!" Ray yelped.

Shadow closed his eyes and sighed.

"Alright Sonic…I'll do it." He said.

The emeralds began to shine and glow, their colours returning to them. The each began to hover into the air.

"Their powers are back!" Ray said.  
"It's Shadow's courage." Knuckles explained. "Even though he fears defeat he's willing to battle Eggman to the death. That takes a lot and it's enough positive feeling to revive the emeralds."

Shadow stepped back slightly from Sonic, who was still sitting on the ground, and closed his eyes, letting the emeralds come to him. They began to circle Shadow's body. They soon span faster and faster and as they did sparks of colour danced. Shadow could feel the sheer power flowing into him.

A golden aura slowly encapsulated Shadow.

Shadow clenched his fists as the aura become brighter. Then the light flashed extremely brightly. Ray and Knuckles shielded their eyes and Sonic closed his eyes and moved his face away from the blinding light.

As the light dimmed, Ray moved his arm away and gasped as he saw his father in, literally, a completely different light.

Shadow hovered just before him, now a beautiful golden shade. His fur flew in the wind and he looked magnificent with power.

Super Shadow saw the bewildered look on his son's face and smiled.

Then in a flash of bright light and sparks, Super Shadow disappeared.


	22. Painful Truths

**Hoorah i can finally log in:D lol soz for not updating sooner i couldn't actually log in ...wierd lol  
Anyway im so glad to get this chapter up and i hope u like it lol **

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**Chapter 22**

Eggman was beginning to feel his insides boil with rage. The Egg-Destroyer 3000 was crushing the ground, trying to find the hedgehogs and the echidna.

"Come out cowards!" he shouted, the veins in his head beginning to pulp. "You'll die quicker and less painfully, I can assure you!"

Suddenly a bright yet short flash appeared in the sky. Super Shadow reappeared. His golden aura lit up the saddened darkness that was left of evening. He hovered just above the Egg-Destroyer 3000.

"Doctor!" Super Shadow yelled out.

Eggman blinked and the Egg-Destroyer 3000 turned around.

"Impossible! My Egg-Destroyer has all the energy from the emeralds! How-?" Eggman yelled, startled.

"Determination." Super Shadow replied coolly. "You've done enough to this world, Eggman. In the end, you're gonna wish you never sent me here in the first place."

Eggman snarled.

"Egg-Destroyer! Kill that hedgehog!" he screamed.

The Egg-Destroyer 300 transformed its arm into a huge missile launcher. Coloured sparks began to fly from around its body, once again. Super Shadow prepared himself for the fight and stanced.

The Egg-Destroyer 3000 gathered an incredible amount of energy to its arm and eventually fired a huge missile. The missile flew through the air at an incredible velocity and was headed directly for Super Shadow.

Shadow frowned and, as the missile came closer to him, flew upwards. He was hoping to simply jump over it but, as he looked behind him, he realised that the missile was a homing device.

Eggman's insane laughter echoed across the terrain and through the woods. He watched the missile chase the hedgehog around like a dog chases a cat.

Super Shadow continued to fly and allowed the missile to follow after him. He flew with great speed and darted into the forest. He flew over the heads of his friends and was headed straight for a cliff.

…

Sonic lay in his own world. His vision was beginning to turn misty and his breathing wasn't improving at all. He could feel the blood in his chest as he took in air. He didn't feel the need to call out for the others to help him…in fact he couldn't really make out who exactly it was that was staying beside him. He could feel the horrible urge to cough coming into his chest.

Ray was sat just next to him, almost in the same condition. Knuckles carefully stood up, holding his side in pain.

"I'm…gonna try and go back and get some help for us." He said.

But almost as soon as he did he was forced to duck down again as Super Shadow skimmed past his head.

He and Ray gasped and saw the bomb headed toward him.

…

Super Shadow flew at top speed. Just as he reached the cliff, he swerved very quickly to the right. The bomb hit the cliff and there was a deafening explosion. The cliff began to crumble and break apart. As the falling debris hit the ground it broke apart and dust flew everywhere.

For a moment, Super Shadow couldn't be seen amongst the dust cloud and Ray began to worry. But then Super Shadow flew like a Concorde out of the dust and back over where his friends were. He stopped himself just before Eggman, a determined and unmoved expression on his face. The doctor snarled at Super Shadow's stubbornness to be gotten rid of.

…

Ray wiped his forehead and sighed with relief, his chest sounding rusty. Then, as he saw his father hovering before Eggman once more, an idea popped into his head.

Knuckles stood up again. Ray stopped him.

"Wait Uncle Knux, I'll go…" he said, coughing a little.  
"You aren't in any condition to walk back to the base by yourself, Ray" Knuckles said.  
"You're not any better…" (he coughed again slightly) "…than I am! Please, I have an idea to help my dad!"

He carefully stood up and ran toward the direction of the Underground Resistance. Knuckles wasn't quick enough to stop him and sighed in slight annoyance.  
He sat down by Sonic's head.

"Don't worry pal. You're gonna be fine. Just hang in there and don't fall asleep on me!" he said.

…

Even though Super Shadow felt more confident in avoiding Eggman's attacks, he knew that he could try his best to fight of this robot but it wouldn't do much good as both he and the Egg-Destroyer 3000 were equally matched.

He didn't let it show, however, but he had a feeling that Eggman knew the same thing. Just then Super Shadow spotted something out of the corner of his eye…something moving in the trees at a fast yet struggling pace.

It was Ray. He ran as quickly as his body would let him towards the Underground Resistance. Eventually he arrived at the hidden entrance but was forced to stop and catch his breath. He fell to his knees and breathed heavily.

He hit the floor with his fist and the hidden door opened. Ray carefully clambered down the hole.

…

"OK Shadow…You and I both know the little problem standing in the way of our battle…" Eggman yelled.

Super Shadow kept the same expression.

"Neither one of us can win this, Doctor…" he said calmly. "So why don't you just surrender?"

"Surrender! How dare you even suggest such a thing? I'm going to make sure you die wether both you and my machine are equally matched or not!" he screamed.

The Egg-Destroyer 3000 lifted its huge arm and began to swing it toward Super Shadow. Super Shadow flew up and down, avoiding being battered as his friends had already been.

…

After a while, Ray finally made it to the Underground Resistance's living quarters. He stumbled to his house and found that that his front door was open.

"Everyone's in our shelter…" Ray thought. "But what I need is on my desk…"

He made it to his desk and surely enough, Shadow's gun (which Tails had made for him) was sitting there. Ray picked it up and smirked.

Just then the cover to the shelter opened slowly. The people hiding below had heard Ray stumbling about and someone was coming to investigate.

"Alright whoever you are! Stay where you.." someone shouted.

It was Tails. He burst open the manhole cover and stopped yelling when he saw Ray.

"Oh my God! Ray are you alright?" Tails said.  
"What? My little Ray's up there?" came Amy's voice from the shelter.

Tails jumped out and ran to Ray, seeing the damage to his side and how ill he was.  
Amy popped her head out and, seeing her son, began to cry.

"You look terrible…" Tails said. "What's happened out there?"  
"Uncle Sonic's in a worser…state than me…" Ray replied. "Uncle Knuckles is injured too…You have to go help them…"

"I will but first, stay here and rest a bit. Tell me what's happening out there."

Ray began to tell Tails and Amy about how the Egg-Destroyer 3000 hurt himself, Knuckles and Sonic. Then about Shadow reviving the chaos emeralds and transforming into Super Shadow.

"So now he's out there fighting that robot but none of them…seem to be backing down…" Ray finished.

He began to cough again (the amount of blood in his chest drawn down to a minimum). Amy quickly scurried into the kitchen and fetched a warm cloth. She then came back and began to rub Ray's chest, in the aid of easing his coughing.

"They must be both as powerful as one another…" Tails said.

"I came down here to get you guys and to get this…" (He held up Shadow's gun) "…To help Dad win." Ray said a little wheezily.

"OK Ray. I'm not properly trained when it comes to medical stuff but I'll try and help in whatever way I can!" Tails said. "Give me two seconds!"

Tails quickly ran out from the house.  
…

Super Shadow continued to battle on with the Eggman's mechanical giant but it seemed to be in vain. Of course, damage was being done but whenever Super Shadow caused damage to the robot's exterior the robot fought back and did the same. Knuckles watched helplessly from the ground.

"Man oh man…this isn't good." He said quietly to himself.

He turned to look at Sonic but what he saw gave him a huge shock, so much that it made him yell out.

Sonic was lying face down in a pool of his blood. His eyes were closed and his arms lay flat at his sides. In fact, he wasn't breathing. He'd obviously had the dreadful coughing fit but was unnoticed, due to the amount of noise from Super Shadow's battle with the Egg-Destroyer 3000.

Knuckles began to gasp for breath, as the horrific sight of his friend lying there in that fashion had made him feel ill.

"S…S…Sonic?" he gasped.

Suddenly, almost as if he'd been giving an electric shock, Knuckles jumped over to Sonic and felt around his neck for a pulse. With nothing being found, tears began to dwell up in the echidna's eyes.

"Sonic, don't…you dare!" he stammered amongst his tears.

A new realisation set into Knuckles' mind and, as it did so, the echidna slowly backed away from his friend. He looked at Sonic's blood stained face and the tears began to fall.

"I'm so…s…sorry!" Knuckles yelled.

Why hadn't Sonic made some kind of effort to attract his attention? He was dying but Knuckles was so concentrated on the battle…

Knuckles sat, leaning against a nearby tree and wept for the loss of his friend and all. Sonic the Hedgehog…was gone.


	23. The death of a hero and a friend

**Thanks for all of your nice reviews u guys! Kelly, u must do some more fanart for me! I'd love to see what you come up with!  
Speaking of art, I've put 2 more pictures up in my profile. Enjoy them! lol They r only rough but hey i like them hehe**

Enjoy this chapter, it isnt the last ;)  


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**Chapter 23**

After a while, Tails had come back with a rather large medical kit. Many of the other residents of the Underground Resistance decided that they wanted to brave out into the forest, with Tails Amy and Ray, and watch Shadow fight for their freedom.

Tails led the way out into the woods he waited for Ray and Amy.

"OK Ray, lead the way." He said.

Ray nodded and grabbed Tails' wrist with his free hand (his other hand was holding Shadow's gun). He zoomed off, pulling Tails along with him, as fast as he could.  
Amy blinked.

"…I'll stay here then…" she said quietly.

The other residents began to slowly emerge from the hidden entrance in the ground. Suddenly the earth shook slightly and everyone gasped. Amy looked up and saw Shadow and gasped again, noticing that he'd transformed into Super Shadow.

Her mind went back to the ARK, watching both him and Sonic in their super forms fighting the Ultimate Life form Prototype. She remembered how confident and heroic they looked.

The other residents saw him too and began to cheer and clap.

"You can do it!"  
"Go for it!"  
"We're counting on you!"

"Now this really is like the ARK incident." Amy thought to herself, smiling.

…

Shadow quickly rolled himself into a ball and dashed at the huge robot. He hit the robot's exterior and dented it slightly. The Egg-Destroyer 3000 stumbled backward slightly and there was the small quake in the ground as its foot hit the ground. Its eyes glowed red and it quickly swung its fist and hit Super Shadow's face.

Super Shadow was flung backward but he gritted his teeth and managed to stop himself in mid air. He hovered there for a few seconds, breathing heavily. He was beginning to feel like he did back at the ARK battle. His energy was beginning to fade, as he was trying so hard to damage the Egg-Destroyer 3000.

Small sparks began to frizzle around him.

"Oh no…" he thought. "I have to hang in!"

…

Ray was beginning to feel tired again too. He stopped just a few metres from where he'd left Knuckles and Sonic.

"They're…just ahead…" Ray gasped. "You go to them…I've got to help…my dad…"

He zoomed off again, clutching the gun in his hand. Tails blinked but then nodded to himself.

"OK… hang on guys!" he yelled.

Tails ran ahead, using his tails as a propeller. He quickly reached his friends but he saw that something wasn't right. Sonic was lying very still on his front and Knuckles was leaning against a nearby tree, his face buried in his hands.

Knuckles heard someone approaching and slowly looked up. He saw Tails but his expression didn't change. Tails looked at Sonic, not able to see the blood he'd drowned in.

"He's…he's gone…" Knuckles stammered.

Tails looked back up at Knuckles. He was beginning to get very anxious, as the terrible thought of Sonic being dead sunk into his mind.

"Wh…what?" he said.

…

Ray ran on around the area where his father and Eggman were fighting and hid behind a nearby tree. He watched his father hovering in the air and saw that he was beginning to get exhausted.

"I've got to do this quick!" he thought to himself.

Bravely, he stepped out onto the battleground. He was behind the Egg-Destroyer 3000 so neither Super Shadow nor Eggman could see him.

"DAD!" Ray yelled.

Super Shadow blinked and saw Ray standing below him, holding a gun. The Egg-Destroyer 3000 turned too and Eggman was able to see the young hedgehog standing before him.

"Ray, get out of here!" Super Shadow yelled.

Ray didn't answer but instead held up the gun. Super Shadow gasped and understood what Ray was going to do.

"You're such a fool, young hedgehog!" Eggman yelled. "Next time, you should stay hidden. It's for your own good!"

The Egg-Destroyer 3000 lifted its fist and pummelled it into the ground where Ray was standing. Luckily, Ray thought quickly and ran out of the way. He skidded around and held the gun ready.

"Eat this, bastard!" he yelled and fired.

The large blue surge of energy hit the Egg-Destroyer 3000 in the joint, connecting the fist to the arm. Sparks began to fly from the arm and quickly moved up from there to and around the rest of the robot's body.The robot stood upright and began to jolt violently. Eggman was being hurtled around the machine's head.

"Aaaaaaah! What have you done!" he yelled.

"Get him now, Dad!" Ray yelled.  
"Got it!" Super Shadow answered and rolled himself into a ball again.

He shot himself at the robot and broke through the body, emerging at the other side.

The robot stopped shaking and fell to its knees. Eggman was screaming like a madman at his creation, ordering it to fight.

"No! Get up and fight you cowardly piece of junk! We must destroy that hedgehog!"

Suddenly, there was an explosion. Ray hid behind a tree, shielding himself from flying pieces of debris.

Super Shadow felt his knees hit the earth as his power left his body. He breathed heavily, coughing amongst the smoke. Then out of nowhere, a chunk of the Egg-Destroyer 3000's exterior hit the back of his head. Shadow fell to his front and lay there unconscious.

…

Everybody else saw the explosion too. Amy and the Underground Resistance cheered and clapped. Their hated ruler was gone for good.

Tails and Knuckles saw it too. Tails smiled amongst his tears.

"They've done it…" he said quietly.

…

Ray began to slowly walk across the terrain, waving away smoke from his mouth and coughing.

"Dad?" he called. "Are you OK?"

The smoke began to clear and Ray saw the outline of his father lying on the ground. Ray ran over to him.

He was thankful to see he wasn't dead but saw the nasty wound to his head which had knocked him out. Carefully, Ray put his father's arm around his own shoulder and began to walk away from the remains of Eggman and his weapon.

…

A few hours later, Shadow (now back in his normal form) began to slowly open his eyes. As his vision focused, he saw Ray Tails Knuckles and Amy standing above him. They seemed unhappy and Shadow noticed straight away that something had happened.

"What's wrong?" he said.  
"Shadow…"Tails began "…it's Sonic.


	24. Moving on

Sonic's death came as a great shock to everybody and the news brought great sorrow, even though their most feared enemy had been defeated. It was decided that Sonic's body was to be buried where he'd died and so it was.

Shadow and Knuckles had together buried their friend and it proved to be a terribly traumatic task, even to Shadow. Amy Ray and Tails stood alongside, along with the other residents of the Underground Resistance. Ray had his face buried in his mother's chest, his body jerking slightly from his crying. In fact, they all wept, some more noticeably than others, at the loss of their hero.

Tails had engraved words into a large stone and placed it at the head of Sonic's grave. It read,  
_  
A great hero and a true friend  
May he rest in peace _

Sonic The Hedgehog

Several hours passed before people began to leave. Knuckles Amy Ray Tails and Shadow were the last ones left. But it wasn't long before most of them decided to turn in. Without saying anything, they began to walk slowly back to their underground base.

"I'll catch up with you in a few minutes." Shadow said to them quietly.

The black hedgehog found himself alone. He sighed, small tears beginning to dwell in his eyes.

"I never thought it would end like this, my friend." He said. "Yes, death comes to everyone but nobody deserves it so soon, especially you…"

He swallowed.

"From the beginning we've always been rivals. But after you saved me, all of those years back, I saw that you really were what I'd heard; a hero. I guess you'll always be remembered as one too."

Shadow lowered his head and sighed again, the tears beginning to fall down his face.

"I just wish I could've saved you…" he thought to himself.

Dark storm clouds began to gather up above and thunder boomed, echoing over the hills. Rain began to fall but Shadow was unmoved by it and continued wallowing in his grief. He put his hand to his head, as if there was some kind of pain there, and began to cry.

…

The few days past and life was beginning to become normal again. The humans, who Eggman had enslaved, heard of his death and were overcome with joy. They began to rebuild their city of Station Square, clearing all of the weeds and vines that had grown there over time.

The Underground Resistance moved up into the forest and rebuilt their homes there, Sonic's grave being only a few metres away.

Within a week, the Underground Resistance was no more and their small colony had been completely refurbished.

**2 weeks later**

Shadow was sat up in a tall tree. He was looking on at Eggman's old base, which was still sitting beyond Station Square. He sighed.

"Shadow! Where are you? I have to talk to you!" came a voice from below.

Shadow blinked and jumped down from the tree and found that it was Tails. He was holding Shadow's wrist communicator/ mapping device and his gun.

"I know what you've been thinking for the past few weeks, Shadow." Tails said.  
"Really?" Shadow replied.

"Yes and I agree. You must return to your own time period. You can stop all of this from ever happening at all."

Shadow nodded.

"The only way I can is with Eggman's gun…the weapon he used to send me here in the first place." He said.

"It's bound to be lying in Eggmn's base. Eggman abandoned his HQ when he came to fight you. But there may be some robots still lurking around…" Tails answered.

"They'll be no problem." Shadow said.

Tails smiled and handed Shadow his things.

"You'll be able to keep in contact with me as before." The two tailed fox said.

"What's going on?" came a voice from behind them.

Shadow and Tails turned around and saw Ray walking toward them, a puzzled look on his face.

"I'm going on another mission." Shadow said.  
"Really? Why?"  
"Eggman left something of mine in his base. I just have to go collect it…"  
"Can I come?"  
"Sorry Ray but I have to go alone on this one. "

Shadow looked at Eggman's base, in the distance.

"Let the others know where I am. I shan't be long." he said.

And with that he zoomed off in the direction of the base.

Ray was more confused than ever but didn't ask any question.

"Whatever he's doing it must be important…" Ray thought to himself.

…

Within a few hours, Shadow reached the base again. He ran through the various corridors trying to find the Eggman's time gun.

"I don't even know where to start looking! It could be anywhere!" Shadow thought.

He sighed and flipped open his wrist communicator.

"Tails! Can you hear me?"  
"Yep. What's up?"  
"Do you have any clue as to where I should look first? This place is so huge…"  
"Hmm…well remember when Sonic said…"

He paused a moment.

"…Tails?" Shadow spoke into the watch.  
"Sorry, it's just…" he sighed. "Talking about Sonic…it's hard…"  
"I know…but what did he say that I'm meant to remember?"

"He was saying about how he found plans for that robot you fought. He said that he ended up in some kind of weapon room or something…"

"A weapon room…" Shadow said, more to himself.  
"I still have the blueprints of the base on the computer. I'll go load it up then call you back when I have the location."  
"Thanks Tails." Shadow said and closed his communicator.

Suddenly he heard a noise from behind him; the clattering of metal being dropped.  
Shadow swung round and held up his gun.

4 robots leapt out of the darkness toward Shadow. They seemed confused but still had their programming intact.

"Intruder Alert! Must capture hedgehog, by order of Eggman!" The robots yelled as they leapt at Shadow.

Shadow jump up in the air and began firing his gun. Each robot began to spark and jerk as the blue jets of energy, from Shadow's gun, hit them. Eventually they lay in a heap on the ground.

"Eggma's dead…you useless pieces of junk have no purpose anymore…" Shadow said.

Just then his wrist communicator began to bleep. Shadow opened it. It was Tails.

"Ok Shadow I have a location for ya. It seems Eggman _had _built a weapon room. It's not far away from the prison cells. Just keep going straight then go down the 3rd corridor on the right. The room should then be straight ahead of you."

"Alright then." Shadow said. "Thanks again Tails."

He closed his communicator and ran in the direction Tails had told him to. Sure enough, down the 3rd right hand corridor, Shadow saw a door. There was a card swiper by it but it had been deactivated, as had everything else in the facility.

Shadow pushed open the door and found what he was looking for. The room was small but had many shelves, each holding a different sort of weapon. Rocket launchers, laser guns and many other things.

In the centre of the room there was a table and on the table was Eggman's Time Absorber 2000. Shadow picked up the gun carefully and examined it.

"Alright. No time to waste. I must get out of here!" he said quietly to himself.

Keeping a tight hold of the Time Absorber, Shadow rushed off down various corridors until he found the exit. He ran back over the various hills and fields, towards the forest.


	25. Back to normal

**Dudes! The story isn't over yet I still have one more chapter to write :D lol This one took me ages so appreciate it whole u can lol  
Also dont forget to check out the pics i put in my profile! I put Kelly's fanart in there too**

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**Chapter 25  
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**_3 hours later_**

"So this is the Time Absorber 2000…" Tails said in wonder, examining the gun.  
"Is there anyway you can set it to my time?" Shadow asked.

"Of course! There's bound to be some sort of setter on here. Just have to figure out where. It shouldn't take me long. You best go get ready to leave. I'll get you when I'm ready." Tails said.

"Leave?" came Ray's voice from behind Tails.

Shadow blinked, not noticing that Ray was there.

"You're leaving?" Ray asked, his voice a slighter higher pitch than usual.  
"Yes. I'm sorry Ray but I have to go."

He walked up to his son.

"I may have stopped Eggman in this period of history, but in my time he's still around. I have to go back and stop him from doing any of the things he did before now."

Ray looked down.

"I'll…I'll go fix this up then." Tails said and hurried off to his hut, avoiding the awkwardness.

"I can understand that" Ray said. "But I haven't seen you in 15 years…all my life I was told that you were dead but when I saw you in the forest 4 weeks ago, I knew who you were right away. I may not have shown it much, but I was so happy to have you around…"

He swallowed, trying to hide his tears.

"…but now I'll be without you again…" he finished.

Shadow knelt down, only a little, to Ray's height.

"I was happy to see you too Ray. I was so glad to see how independent and brave you'd grown to be. The reason I wasn't able to be with you was Eggman. He sent me through time and space and it took 15 years before I was finally sent here. If I go back, I'll be able to stop him from ever doing that…"

Just then Tails hurried back with the Time Absorber.

"I've done it Shadow! Wasn't so hard to figure out after all!" he said.

Shadow stood up and looked over at Tails.

"Can you go and get the others? Tell them I'm going…I would like to say goodbye before I go."

Tails nodded and ran off again. Shadow turned back to Ray.

"I have some time before Tails will have told _everybody_ about the news. Come with me." He said.

Together, the two hedgehogs walked towards the tallest of the trees that stood in the forest. They climbed up it and sat on the sturdiest branch.

The time was getting to early evening and the sky was turning into a bright mix of orange and a golden yellow.

The hedgehogs sat and watched the sky, no one of them saying anything as they both took in the tranquillity of it all.

…

About an hour later, everyone had gathered to say their goodbyes to Shadow. Shadow individually said goodbye to the closer of his friends; Knuckles and Tails first.

He then came to Amy, who was beginning to cry once again.

"I look forward to seeing you again…" he said.

Amy blinked, a little confused, but understood what he meant.

"I'll obviously look a lot better then!" she joked.

Shadow chuckled. He then moved on to Ray.

The two had, technically, already said their farewells but, without saying anything, Ray leapt into his father's arms and they embraced. Shadow could hear Ray cry a little and smiled at him as they broke apart.

"Ray, I want you to promise me something." He said.

Ray blinked.

"Since your Uncle Sonic has passed on and I'm about to go that leaves you in charge. Promise me to protect everyone here, be the hero."

"But…I'll never be as good a hero as you. Or Uncle Sonic for that matter…" Ray replied.  
"No one can ever be as good as Sonic, I know that I will never be, but that doesn't mean you can't be a hero." Shadow answered.

Ray smiled and nodded.  
Shadow stood up and looked over at Tails.

"OK Tails…" he said.

Tails nodded and pushed a few buttons on the gun.

"I've set it to send you back to the day you disappeared…the day Eggman took over."

Shadow nodded.

"Go for it…" he said.

Tails held up the gun and, almost hesitating, fired it at Shadow. Shadow clenched his fists, beginning to feel the same rushing feeling as he did when Eggman shot him before.

Ray sighed as he saw his father disappear in a flash of purple light.

"I won't forget you Dad…I know we'll see each other again, just in another time…" he thought.

As Shadow disappeared, Tails put the gun to the ground and stomped his foot on it. The gun smashed into pieces.

"There…now no more damage can be done…" he said.  
…

What felt like a few seconds later, Shadowcould feelhimself fall onto a concrete floor. He groaned and rubbed his face, which had been battered in the landing.

"Whoa! Enjoy your trip there Shadow?" came a voice.

Shadow gasped and quickly looked up. He saw Sonic standing above him, folding his arms. He looked a lot younger now; back to his normal self.

"You Ok there? What did ya trip on, a rock?" he asked.

Shadow looked around and realised he was back on the promenade, just outside the hospital. He sighed with relief.

"Back to normal…thank god!" he thought.  
"Hellooo? Earth to Shadow?"  
"Uhh…sorry. Yeh, must have been a pebble or something…" Shadow replied and stood up.

"It's great to see you again, Sonic." He said, beginning to walk with the blue hedgehog.

"Again? Wait, you mean you're glad I stayed to wait for you right?"  
"Oh yeah. Sure that's it!"  
"Ha! I knew you had a soft spot in there somewhere, Shadow!"

Shadow sighed. His mind then clicked, remembering what he was supposed to do.

"Sonic, I have to tell you something. Eggman's gonna arrive here any minute. We have to…"  
"Huh? Eggman? He's not shown his face since the ARK incident!" Said Sonic, jumping onto the beach.

"I know but…"

Just then the ground began to shake. Shadow leapt onto the sand and pushed Sonic away from the opening cracks emerging in the ground.  
"Whoa!" Sonic yelled as he was pushed into the sand.  
The two hedgehogs looked up and, sure enough, there was Eggman's digger.

"Hey! How did you know…?" Sonic asked.  
"It's a long story…We have to get him now!" Shadow replied.

He conjured up a powerful Chaos Spear attack and, before Eggman could even open the door of his digger, he fired them.

"CHAOS SPEAR!" he yelled, throwing the powerful spears at the digger.

Eggman began to open the door.

"WHAA!" he yelled as he saw the incoming spears.

The digger exploded on impact.

Sonic still lay on the sand, completely taken aback by what was going on.  
Smoke arose from the digger. Sonic stood up.

"Shadow…did you just kill Eggman!" he asked, sounding rather stupid.  
"It isn't over just yet…" Shadow replied.

Sure enough, Eggman emerged from the smoke, coughing and holding a large gun.

"The Time Absorber!" Shadow thought.

"Damn you hedgehogs! You don't even let me have a word in do you!" Eggman yelled.

Shadow ignored this remark and turned to Sonic.

"Sonic we can't let him fire that gun at us. It'll send us through time!"  
"What!"  
"Just get that gun off of him will you? I'll then destroy it."

"Alright…" said Sonic, a little confused.

He stepped forward.

"I dunno why you're here, Egg-Head. But you're not gonna do any damage, I'll make sur of it!" He yelled.

He leapt at Eggman, with high speed and quickly rolled himself into a ball. He launched at Eggman and hit him in the chest. Eggman was thrust backward and hit the wall, separating the beach from the promenade; the wall that Sonic had been thrown into before.  
Eggman dropped the Time Absorber, which rolled a few feet away.

Shadow walked over it and stood above it, his foot raised.  
Eggman lay rather unconscious on the ground so Shadow would have no interference problem in destroying the gun.

He stomped his foot on the Time Absorber. It smashed and lay in bits on the sand. He smirked and turned to the unconscious Eggman.

"The trouble you caused me, because of that thing! You would not believe how much I've wanted to do that!" Shadow sneered.

Just then police sirens could be heard in the distance. The two hedgehogs blinked and looked up to see about 3 police cars screech to a halt on the promenade.  
Officers rushed out of the car and jumped onto the beach. The CI walked over to Sonic and Shadow.

"We received a call about some kind of disturbance here. You two know what's been happening?" he asked suspiciously.

Before either of them could answer one of the officers called out.

"Sarge! Look it's Doctor Robotnik!" he cried.  
"That's what the disturbance was about, sir. Eggman picked a fight with us." Sonic said.

"He's been on our Most Wanted List for a wile now. Don't worry hedgehog, we can take it from here." The CI said.

"All right men! Arrest him!" he yelled to his officers.

Eggman began to come around just as handcuffs were snapped around his wrists.

"…What…? Hey! What the-? Let go of me! How dare you!" he yelled and began to struggle.  
But the officers bundled him in their police car and drove away, sirens blaring.

"He'll be locked up for a good long while…finally!" The CI said.  
"Alright men let's call the fire department and get them to sort out this wreckage!"

HE turned to Sonic and Shadow.

"You've done it again Sonic!" he said.  
"Actually, if it weren't for Shadow…" (he gave Shadow a friendly punch to the shoulder) "I'd never of known Eggman was even coming!"

Shadow rubbed his shoulder.

"Whatever…" he muttered, smiling.


	26. Epilogue: The beauty of the Sun

**It is with deepest sadness, time to finish the fic...lol about time! lol j/k  
It's been really great writing this story. Lemme tell you how it came into my head...(if you have the time or can be bothered to read it!)**

**The title comes from the song "Stockholm Syndrome" by Blink 182  
**_  
**"Life's Temporary...  
(After we're done!)  
...like New Years resolutions..."  
**_  
**lol so yeah I was listening to that when I had the idea of a time travel fic. Shadow obviously had the lead, as he's my favourite character. The rest just came as I wrote: D**

**Thank you very much to everyone who reviewed, esp those who reviewed every chapter they read and stuck with the story all the way! You're nice comments drive me to write more and more! Enjoy this last chapter and look out for my next story soon!**

* * *

**Chapter 26**

Life was finally beginning to settle down for Shadow. He lived happily with Amy and their son, Ray. A few months after Ray was born, Amy and Shadow decided to buy a bigger place and, in the end, found a great house by the beach. Shadow was very grateful for living so much closer to the beach, because it meant he could sit on the sand in the evenings and enjoy the tranquillity up close.

As for the others;  
Sonic carried on living his city lifestyle and often visited Shadow and Amy (but they knew it was an excuse for him to just sit on the beach all day!)

Tails carried on inventing in his workshop in Mystic Ruin, Knuckles stayed on Angel Island, leaving to visit Station Square on special occasions. In fact, everyone of the gang continued the same life they'd always been living.

Eggman tried as hard as he could but his many attempts to escape prison failed and he found himself trapped…nowhere to go and nothing to live for. He ended up taking his own life, in a bid to find at least some kind of light and hope.

Earth was finally free.

**15 years later **

The time was early morning and the sun was slowly rising from the glittering sea. A young black hedgehog was sitting on the sand, his legs tucked into his arms. His fur blew in the slow wind.

He had similar spikes to Shadow but was black all over, except a small tuft of fur on his head, which was highlighted pink. His eyes were an emerald green. There was also a small amount of white fur on the hedgehog's chest.

The sea was calm and, slowly, began to come in. The young hedgehog closed his eyes and sighed. He lay down on his back, putting one hand behind his head.

"I can see what Dad means…" the hedgehog said quietly, embracing the softness of the atmosphere.

Just then, the hedgehog could hear footsteps.

"I see I'm not the only one who wanted to come and relax!" said a voice.

The young hedgehog blinked, opening his eyes, and sat up. He turned his head to see who it was that had spoken.

It was Shadow.

"Morning Ray." He said, smiling.

Ray smiled back and looked back at the sunrise, the relaxing orange glow shining on his face. Shadow sat beside him.

"You're awake early…" he said.  
"Yeah…I couldn't sleep anymore!" Ray answered with a hint of excitement in his voice.  
"Neither would I, if I were you." Shadow replied. "It is your birthday, after all."

Ray smiled.

"I was just thinking about seeing Uncle Sonic and the others again. It's been a while. Plus we could all have a race down the beach!" he exclaimed.

Shadow closed his eyes and smiled.

"Yes. He does a very competitive streak about him…" he said.

He began to think back to other side of time; where he'd spent 4 weeks with the older version of his friends. He remembered falling to his knees in front of Sonic's grave…the weather wasn't anything like it was today….

"Everything's changed…just how I hoped it would…" he thought.

He shook his head and opened his eyes. He reached his hand into the spines on his back and pulled out a small wrapped present.

"I was gonna give this to you later, when the others were here, but…I suppose now's a good time." He said and handed Ray the present.

Ray took it and carefully opened it. Inside to paper were two golden wristbands. They shone as the morning sun hit them. Ray smiled.

"They're like yours…" he said, looking at Shadow.  
"Yes. Take care of them…" Shadow replied.

Ray quickly slipped the golden bands around his wrists and admired them.

"They're so cool!" he said, beaming.  
"I'm glad." Shadow replied. "Now, the party doesn't start for a good long while yet so try and get some more sleep. You'll need the energy."

Ray nodded and stood up, walking slowly back to the house. Shadow stood up too, about to follow but found that the morning sky dragged him back. He stood and stared at it, for it reminded him of what Maria once said to him, about how pretty the Earth was. It was many years ago now though, so Shadow found that he couldn't remember exactly what she'd said to him. But looking at the wondrous Sun appearing over the sea brought Maria's face back to his mind. His thoughts then switched to what he'd said to Ray before he'd left the future.

He smiled at the memories but wondered why this random sequence of thought had suddenly played in his mind.

He shrugged.

"It's good to know they are still there anyway…" he said.

He turned and began walking back to the house.

**THE END**


End file.
